Opinion: Will Trump be able to wade his way out of troubled waters again?

- CNN 27/04/22, 7(29 PM

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Opinion: Will Trump be able to

wade his way out of troubled
waters again?
Opinion by Michael D'Antonio
! Updated 2004 GMT (0404 HKT) April 16, 2022

Opinion Audio

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The GOP fight that Trump's endorsement of Dr. Oz just ignited 03:03

Editor's Note: Michael D'Antonio is the author of the book "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of
Success" and co-author, with Peter Eisner, of the book "High Crimes: The Corruption, Impunity, and
Impeachment of Donald Trump." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more
opinion on CNN.

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Opinion: Will Trump be able to wade his way out of troubled waters again? - CNN 27/04/22, 7(29 PM

(CNN) — Frank Luntz, a longtime GOP pollster, said in a recent interview that many Republicans are laughing at
former President Donald Trump in private. "They won't say it, but behind his back, they think he's a child.
They're laughing at him...Trump isn't the same man he was a year ago. Even many Republicans are tired of
going back and rehashing the 2020 election," Luntz told the Daily Beast this week.

Earlier this week, Republican strategist Susan Del Percio

said she believes many Americans are tired of Trump's
"big lie," telling MSNBC, "The people of this country don't
want to hear about it anymore."

Although the former President might dismiss the

comments from Luntz and Del Percio, his problems go
beyond the observations of two GOP operatives. A few of
the high-profile Republican primary candidates he
endorsed, including J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate
in Ohio, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is running for Senate in
Pennsylvania, have prompted complaints from allies and
longtime supporters, potentially fracturing his base and
Michael D'Antonio signaling his waning influence. Meanwhile, his drawing
power at rallies has fallen to a level he might have
previously found embarrassing. It may be time to ask: Is
Trump losing his grip on the Republican Party?

Considering that he draws his real power from the enthusiasm of his loyalists, Trump's biggest problem may be
seen in the small crowd of about 1,000 to 2,000 people that turned out to see him at a rally last week in North
Carolina, according to The News & Observer. In 2016, Trump attracted a crowd of 15,000 to the same venue.
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It was at the rally last Saturday that Trump boosted several candidates he endorsed in this year's primaries,
including North Carolina GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who seems to be following in Trump's footsteps when it
comes to courting controversy. Cawthorn is currently on the outs with Republican congressional leaders due to
his recent comments about being invited to orgies in Washington and seeing party leaders doing cocaine.
(Cawthorn later said his comments were "used by the left and the media to disparage my Republican
colleagues and falsely insinuate their involvement in illicit activities.") Meanwhile, some locals are tiring of the
congressman, who now faces several primary opponents after he decided to run in another district, only to
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return when a three-judge panel in North Carolina approved new redistricting maps.

A defeat for Cawthorn, who is Trump's anointed candidate,

would only add to the former President's list of
questionable endorsements. On Friday, Trump announced
he would endorse Vance in Ohio, issuing a statement that
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said the "Hillbilly Elegy" writer was "our best chance for
victory in what could be a very tough race." But more than
three dozen Republicans in the state had written a letter
questioning Vance's Republican credentials and urging
Trump not to endorse him.

Trump also decided to back fellow TV personality Dr. Oz

last week, which prompted criticism from the likes of Fox
News host Laura Ingraham, who called it "a mistake."
Related Article: For Trump, the party's Trump's former counselor Kellyanne Conway echoed
over Ingraham's sentiment and questioned Oz's political stance
while conservative radio host Erick Erickson took to Twitter
to complain about Trump making "the worst possible
endorsements" (although he laid the blame on the former President's stacers instead). Erickson had also

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Opinion: Will Trump be able to wade his way out of troubled waters again? - CNN 27/04/22, 7(29 PM

previously called Trump's endorsement of David Perdue for governor of Georgia "the worst played hand in
politics in America today."

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Some critics have also started wondering if Trump might end up being a godsend for Democrats, as Jennifer
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Rubin wrote in the Washington Post. In 2020, it seemed Trump's endorsements of Kelly Loeder and Perdue in
the Georgia Senate runoc elections backfired and instead helped Democrats win a slim majority in the upper
chamber. Rubin, who noted that Trump could be putting himself in political peril with these endorsements,
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wrote, "The risk is that if his choices flop, it will expose him as a has-been with little political sway."

Weariness with Trump also bubbled to the surface earlier this month when New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu
mocked him at the annual Gridiron dinner for Washington's movers and shakers. Sununu began his remarks by
sounding a note of optimism for Trump, describing his "experience," "passion" and "sense of integrity" as
revealed in the former President's social media posts. Then he got laughs as he added, "Nah, I'm just kidding.
He's f---ing crazy." That Sununu, who once called himself a "Trump guy through and through," would make
such a joke is a remarkable turn of events.

Taken together, Trump's troubles are encouraging to those

of us who believe the country would be better oc if the
Get our free weekly newsletter former President retired and spent the rest of his days
playing golf. Of course, his critics have been declaring the
Sign up for CNN Opinion's newsletter. end of his power and popularity for years, only to watch
him achieve surprising success. So while I'm not saying
Join us on Twitter and Facebook that he will definitely stage a comeback -- I don't expect
he will -- it's never a safe bet with Trump, who has
repeatedly defied expectations.

1. The Republican Party, also referred to as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main historic rival, the Democratic Party.

2. Primaries: State elections of delegates to the nominating convention that chooses a major party's presidential candidate.

3. redistricting: the activity or process of dividing an area or region into new districts, such as for administrative or electoral purposes

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4. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis is a 2016 memoir by J. D. Vance about the Appalachian values of his Kentucky family and
their relation to the social problems of his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, where his mother's parents moved when they were young.

5.Jennifer Rubin is an American political commentator who writes opinion columns for The Washington Post.
6. has been: a person or thing considered to be outmoded or no longer of any significance

-Comment on the tone used by the writer to sway the opinion of the intended audience.

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