The former national security adviser wants Republicans to believe that the 45th president doesn’t own the party. So he’s collecting data.
John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser turned outspoken critic, has commissioned a new poll to illustrate that the former president’s grip on the Republican Party is loosening.
The poll, released on Tuesday morning, showed Trump’s “very favorable” numbers among Republican voters dropped 19 points since a separate poll from a different pollster taken in October 2020. It also showed that 56 percent of self-identified Republican primary voters would support a candidate other than Trump in the 2024 primary.
Bolton said his motivation for conducting the survey was to show that the Republican Party, contrary to what “the commentariat and among some politicians” say, had “not become a cult of personality.”
“There didn’t appear to be the recognition that things changed on Jan. 20, that Trump had gone from sitting in the most powerful office in the world to sitting by the swimming pool at Mar-a-Lago and that that’s going to have an effect over time as it is for any president who leaves office,” Bolton said.
He predicted that Trump would not run for president in 2024.
“I think he’ll talk about it incessantly until then for the attention that it gets, but I think most of the candidates are preparing for a race in which Trump doesn’t participate and protecting against that contingency,” he said.
In response to Bolton’s presentation, Trump’s own pollster, John McLaughlin released a statement saying the ex-president “is the strongest endorsement I have ever witnessed in politics,” which is why “everybody is coming to Mar-a-Lago for his support.” Trump’s former White House political director, Brian Jack, added his own statement that credied Trump with a 121-2 endorsement record in congressional special elections and primary contests. Not to be outdone, Trump’s senior advisor Jason Miller took a swipe at Bolton in a statement of his own.
“John Bolton has never recovered from being fired. President Trump used Bolton’s idiocy to the benefit of Americans in negotiating deals with other countries because they knew Bolton was a crazed lunatic, and if he was in the room, they’d be concerned,” Miller said.
As with much polling data, there was nuance to Bolton’s numbers. While Trump’s “very favorable” rating plummeted with Republicans compared to the October 2020 New York Times/Siena College Research Institute poll, his “somewhat favorable” rating went up by 12 points. Combined, his total favorable rating dipped from 92 percent to 85 percent.
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The former national security adviser wants Republicans to believe that Trump doesn’t own the party. So he’s collecting data. https://t.co/WxKWCwcaMv
— POLITICO (@politico) April 22, 2021
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