A GOP Senator Warns Republicans Will Keep Losing if They Idolize Trump

Sen. Bill Cassidy had voted to convict the former president at his second impeachment trial.

Artist Tommy Zegan (R) and another man move Zegan's statue of former President Donald Trump during the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 27, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Hours before former President Donald Trump reenters the public stage with a speech at CPAC, the country’s largest conservative political conference, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) warned fellow Republicans that the party will continue to lose if it continues to “idolize” the former president. Cassidy was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial earlier this month for inciting the violent insurrection on January 6.

“Over the last four years, we lost the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the presidency,” Cassidy said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, adding that the last time such a losing streak occurred in four years was at the beginning of the Great Depression with then-President Herbert Hoover. If Republicans “idolize one person we will lose,” Cassidy noted. “And that’s kind of clear from the last election.”

But Trump easily survived his second impeachment trial this month as most Republicans stood by him. Even after excoriating the former president and pointing to his responsibility for the January 6 insurrection, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said recently that he would support Trump if he were the party’s nominee in 2024. And Republicans who decided to buck Trump over the Capitol attack are being attacked by their own party and colleagues who remain loyal to Trump. The state Republican Party in Louisiana said it was disappointed in Cassidy’s vote to convict Trump after the impeachment trial. There are no signs that the Republican Party is moving away from the former president, who transformed the party into a cult of personality around him.

One particularly literal example of idolization of Trump by some of those who attended CPAC was a golden statue of him  that was created by the artist Tommy Zegan. Its appearance gave rise to numerous references to the Biblical story of the golden calf which symbolizes God’s wrath against false idols. 

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate