Politico: Trump unites the Republican Party while Biden leaves Democrats in chaos

For nearly a decade, Trump has been the greatest force for unity among Democrats and the biggest source of division in his party, and now, as Republicans meet to nominate Trump for the third consecutive presidential election, that has been reversed.

The process of full and comprehensive realignment of the Republican Party in Trump’s party is almost complete, after Trump avoided being seriously challenged, let alone defeated, during the primary, but a process that took root when Trump escaped death.

Even more troubling for his opponents, and perhaps for the country, the magazine said, is that the shooting, and his defiant response, will strengthen his argument for a pattern of strongman politics.

Trump’s tight grip will strengthen, not only on the campaign trail, but also, if he wins, with a party that will prove far less likely to resist its impulses in the second term.

The former president not only controlled the Republican Party, but was also a unique force in the Democratic Party.

Until the moment the former president was shot, the anti-Trump opposition was united in the hope that the 2024 election would eventually be fought on the same grounds, but in the wake of Biden’s disastrous debate that showed that Trump’s stopping forces are now deeply divided.

After all these years of unity pushed by Trump, the coalition is at odds, because while the threat it poses is now more realistic, the understanding they had to silence domestic dissent has receded.

Democrats are now trying to squeeze what should have been a three-year dialogue in 3 weeks, the summer of the election, and they are speaking in existential terms about the risks.

Politico reflected on this extraordinary moment, showing that Biden’s own allies in Congress are trying to oust him from his campaign, and the campaign was organized behind the scenes in part by the most successful lawmaker of the era.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, convinced Biden will lose, has been on phones since June 27 hoping to find a way to keep him out of the run.

The extent of Pelosi’s behind-the-scenes role hasn’t been fully disclosed and may never be revealed if the former House speaker has what she wants.

Shortly before the shooting, Biden had sat on a controversial call with a group of moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives, a dispute that prompted one lawmaker to call me afterwards and suggest that more calls from the bloc demanding Biden step down would be imminent.

In a rare speech in the Oval Office on Sunday night, Biden said, “It was time to calm things down, and that politics should never be a battlefield”.