After a decade as GOP’s main character, Trump gets one more starring role at midterm convention
By Steve Contorno, Alayna Treene, CNN
Dallas (CNN) — For a decade, President Donald Trump has made himself his party’s main character — a singular force around whom its rallies, conventions and political identity have revolved.
Republicans are taking that devotion a step further this week, gathering in the Lone Star State at Trump’s behest for an unprecedented midterm convention conceived by him and to celebrate him. Trump will appear both nights of the event and watch from a suite as the loyalty from party leaders and allies is on display.
But hanging over what may be the party’s most overt Trumpfest yet is an increasingly unavoidable reality: It could also be one of the last.
In 55 days, voters will decide who controls Congress for the final two years of Trump’s presidency, with his unpopularity driving fierce headwinds against his party (and prompting some Republicans to skip the festivities in Dallas). Soon after, attention will inevitably begin shifting toward the Republicans jockeying to succeed him, while Trump faces for the first time a long countdown to leaving power.
“It’s hard to imagine politics without him,” said Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union. “But the reality is we’re going to have to figure that out.”
Walking into almost any major conservative gathering over the past 10 years meant stepping into a world saturated with Donald Trump. His name, his red hats, his image — they’re everywhere. His supporters line up for pictures with impersonators with his recognizable hair, some flashing Trump-branded sneakers and watches.
In 2021, a golden statue of Trump was wheeled into the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Artist Jon McNaughton has built a following with surreal depictions of Trump — as Atlas carrying the world, as a boxer knocking out Joe Biden, as the fifth face on Mount Rushmore. His work has become popular with Trump supporters and even caught the president’s eye. Now, McNaughton is beginning to consider what it will mean to portray Trump not as the sitting president but as a historical figure.
“For me, Trump will increasingly become an archetype in future paintings, much as I use Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy or Reagan to tell different parts of the American story,” McNaughton told CNN in an email. “Trump represents restoration and disruption — sometimes simultaneously. Viewers now and in the future can decide for themselves what those ideas mean.”
Trump thinks about his legacy
Trump himself has shown signs of contemplating the ticking clock.
He recently told New York Magazine that his building spree across Washington is motivated in part by a desire to leave a lasting mark on the capital because “nobody will do it once I’m gone.” At an event last month inside a General Motors testing facility, he imagined himself at home after leaving office, watching a successor take credit as manufacturing plants that broke ground during his presidency eventually come online.
“Will you please remember that I did it?” Trump asked the crowd.
His advisers have long understood that Trump will no longer be the center of his party’s attention as 2028 draws near. Trump has privately asked aides about how to navigate that period and avoid the pitfalls that accompany a lame-duck presidency, White House officials said.
“It’s why he has been so singularly focused on his legacy,” one of the officials said.
Not that anyone expects Trump to fade quietly from Republican politics.
He is expected to play a decisive role in choosing his successor, whether that’s Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio or someone else. And a president who turned America’s 250th celebration into a standard Trump rally and conjured a midterm convention into existence could find plenty of other reasons to summon Republicans for another gathering before — or after — leaves office.
“If Trump is different than every president we’ve ever had, thinking he’ll be a regular ol’ lame duck is wishful thinking,” said Doug Heye, a veteran GOP strategist.
Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary, said he wouldn’t be surprised if Republicans continue to find ways to hold events for Trump to keep the base engaged.
“No one can get crowds like Trump does,” Spicer said. “If you can get Trump to continue to do them, then that’s a huge thing.”
But the political calendar will impose changes even Trump cannot prevent.
After the midterms, Republicans who harbor presidential ambitions will begin maneuvering for position, forcing the party to contemplate the future of Trump’s movement and the GOP’s direction once he’s gone. The next Republican National Convention will be the first since 2012 at which someone other than Trump is expected to accept the party’s nomination.
The GOP’s post-Trump future
There have been glimpses of what that might look like.
For the first time in a decade, Trump didn’t attend this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, also held in Dallas. Schlapp, whose organization puts on CPAC, said Trump’s absence initially disappointed attendees, but it ultimately gave him insight into what conservative events and grassroots activism might look like when Trump is no longer president.
“A lot of other dynamics were able to occur that weren’t able to when he’s there because he’s such a huge, dominating presence,” Schlapp said.
In the meantime, Trump has framed the midterms as an ultimatum for Republican officials and voters: rally around his presidency, or watch Democrats destroy it. The first advertisements from his political operation feature him, “the toughest, most resilient person,” as a narrator puts it. No other Republicans are mentioned.
He is expected to spend the next eight weeks touring the country, with 30-plus planned rallies in key battleground states and districts. MAGA inc., a Trump-aligned super PAC, had $400 million on hand last month, and the president made clear he will oversee how that money is spent. Earlier this month, the group disclosed it had purchased $10 million of advertising time in support of Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
The approach will test whether Trump can convince the voters who have reliably supported him in his elections and embraced his transformation of the party will also show up for him when he’s not on the ballot. It’s a gamble that is not without risk as his popularity continues to stall. His job approval is at 35% – close to where it was at the same point in his first term and significantly lower than most presidents historically.
Republican Party chairman Joe Gruters told CNN Trump “completely transformed what the Republican Party is” and regardless of the outcome in November, he expects Trump will be “front and center for a long time.” Whatever the polling suggests, Gruters argued his support from Republicans remains strong and they will be leaning into that in Dallas and all through the fall.
“When you’re in the bottom of the ninth inning and runners are on base and you’re down, you want your best possible batter up,” Gruters said, “and for us that’s the president of the United States.”
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CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy contributed to this report.
