Elaine Godfrey: “You may not have thought it possible for the GOP to swaddle itself tighter in the trappings of Donald Trump—for Republicans to more completely absorb the former president’s essence. But next week, they will.”
“The Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee, will showcase a new iteration of the GOP. This year, the proposed Republican Party platform is a Trump campaign document. The GOP’s chief organizing and fundraising apparatus, the Republican National Committee, has gone full MAGA; now led by Trump’s daughter-in-law, it looks more like a subsidiary of Trump Inc. than a traditional party organ. And instead of a celebration of big-tent unity, the convention will be a four-day fealty fest.”
“Eight years after Trump’s first nominating convention, the old party grandees have been pushed aside. The GOP platform has been stuffed with his rally applause lines and shorn of policies that might cost him votes. In short, Trump has asserted a level of control that’s unprecedented in recent memory.”
