Welcome to the Trump Presidency
Even for some Republicans, it is still a bit unbelievable. They have it all now—all the power. They won it fair and square. Donald Trump is assuming the presidency, and Republicans control the House and Senate.
They streamed into Washington this week to collect their reward, the activists and party hacks and true believers who helped make it happen. The members of the Republican National Committee, representing every state and territory, gathered in the ornate, slightly dowdy ballrooms of Washington’s Omni Shoreham hotel, where they took care of the party’s business between being feted at lunches, receptions, and inaugural balls. The mood was jubilant: Against all odds, after years of frustration, everything they worked for had come to pass.
The Republicans—a few hundred RNC members and nonmember guests—took their seats in rows of chairs to hear the good news: control of Congress, 33 of 50 governorships, control of the legislatures of 32 states. On the stage, their chairman for the last six years, Reince Priebus, told them their efforts had been key to the party’s success.
“We’ve got record levels of red all over this country, a mandate from the American people to lead, and the wind at our back to offer a new course for our country!” Priebus exulted. An unassuming lawyer from Kenosha, Wisconsin, Priebus had spent much of the last two years disparaged as inept and mocked for leading his party to ruin; now he was on his way to becoming White House chief of staff.
But the Republican Party that takes over Washington as Trump assumes the presidency is not one the Priebus of a few years ago might
