Trump: The Long Goodbye

No matter which party wins control of Congress on November 3, the midterms signal the start of the closing chapters in President Trump’s political career. No wonder Mr. Trump’s recent rallies have an autumnal air. The events, per the Times, “are starting to feel like the first stops of a farewell tour.” Mr. Trump will have, to be sure, two years left in office. Yet even if the GOP holds Congress, it is hard for any president to transcend the role of canard boiteux.The coming months, more importantly, will evince whether Mr. Trump’s remaking of the GOP is a short-term aberration or a long-term transformation. Senator Ted Cruz hinted at this when he eyed a “fundamental debate” over the GOP’s future as 2028 nears: “I think the voters are going to decide who are we and what do we believe.” The president is “a unique historical figure,” he added, and “there is no Donald Trump on the horizon to succeed him.”Mr. Trump nods at this, telling rally audiences that “we want to win the midterms,” as he said on Saturday at Vandalia, Ohio, so “if you don’t mind, please pretend that I’m on the ballot.” Yet these events are, the Times says, “more modest” and “more sedate” than earlier standing-room-only rallies, and few of them are being held in places with the most competitive races. Feature, say, the president’s appearance last week at Mobile, Alabama.“I’m really here because, sometimes,” Mr. Trump said, “you’ve got to pay respect to the people that loved you right from the beginning.” In August 2015, Mobile was the site of one of Mr. Trump’s first rallies, drawing 30,000 at a time when it was far from clear whether he would capture the GOP nomination, much less the White House. “I don’t know if you know. It sort of all began here,” he said. “We packed the stadium and the rest was history.”A backwards glance is likely more encouraging than contemplating the midterm prospects. Democratic control of either chamber of Congress could roil the last two years of Mr. Trump’s tenure. Plus, too, there is the succession question. The difficulty of identifying a figure who can bridge the factions within the GOP has been underlined by the president’s own tendency to define in personal terms his movement to Make America Great Again. “They are not MAGA, I am,” he says of critics. Parties transcend their leaders’ tenures, though, as Republicans weighing White House bids grasp. “There’s a struggle within the party between populism and free market,” says Senator Rand Paul. He hopes “there will be a free-market candidate.” Would such a candidate appeal to Mr. Trump’s MAGA movement? What, too, of old GOP ideals of small government, fiscal rigor, and sound money? So après Trump, le déluge? Mr. Trump’s long goodbye will require balancing the duties of governing while defining his legacy amid the GOP’s search for a new standard-bearer. The end, though, could arrive sooner than the president anticipates as the attention of the press, and the voters, pivots toward the 2028 presidential race. Of his post-White House plans, he offers the unlikely: “Perhaps I’ll try a couple of years of being nonconsequential.”

Trump: The Long Goodbye

Trump: The Long Goodbye

More from the New York Sun

‘Arsenal’ of Naval Strength Returns to Maryland Despite No Love Lost Between Federal, State Officials

A Senator Exits Stage Right, Offering Long Overdue Regrets

Israel Three Years On

On October 7th Anniversary, Israel Is On High Alert for Another Surprise Attack

Christa Pike Is ‘Angry’ at Her Botched Execution as Lawyer Discloses Her First Words

Columbia’s Liberal Knight Institute Escalates Push To Publish Jack Smith’s Secret Mar-a-Lago Report, Sun First To Report

Cornell Fraternity Brothers Called Alleged Gang Rape ‘Consensual,’ Videos Show — as Letitia James Takes Over Investigation

Speak of the Devil on the Bowery

More from the New York Sun

‘Arsenal’ of Naval Strength Returns to Maryland Despite No Love Lost Between Federal, State Officials

A Senator Exits Stage Right, Offering Long Overdue Regrets

Israel Three Years On

On October 7th Anniversary, Israel Is On High Alert for Another Surprise Attack

Christa Pike Is ‘Angry’ at Her Botched Execution as Lawyer Discloses Her First Words

Columbia’s Liberal Knight Institute Escalates Push To Publish Jack Smith’s Secret Mar-a-Lago Report, Sun First To Report

Cornell Fraternity Brothers Called Alleged Gang Rape ‘Consensual,’ Videos Show — as Letitia James Takes Over Investigation

Speak of the Devil on the Bowery