Can Donald Trump be Replicated?

Wondering if America’s right wing will be able to find someone who can truly pick up where the former President left off.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images file

With Joe Biden having only been in office for a week, at times I still find myself reflecting upon the past four years of the Trump administration and everything that led up to them. Personally, the storming of the capitol by pro-Trump supporters was a moment that I’ll never forget, and has led me to wonder what it took to bring us to that moment. We can have lengthy discussions — and I know I have — about the pivotal roles of White supremacy and economic anxieties that brought us to the moment where armed men with zip ties, confederate flags, and weaponry were engaged in hours long standoffs with the police, there’s certainly no denying that the cult of personality behind Donald Trump played a significant part in not only his election, but the lengths that his supporters were willing to go to keep him in power.

It should come as no surprise that there are a number of prominent Republicans — namely Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and perhaps Tucker Carlson — who are clearly hoping to capitalize off of the former President’s popularity with the right wing base for their own personal ambitions in upcoming elections. Even with their own lives and the lives of their fellow lawmakers put in jeopardy, it still was not enough to prevent them from putting on a show, and voting against the certification of the election results following the riots at the capitol that had delayed the entire process. But while it’s critical to point out that just because one coup attempt failed doesn’t mean that another one won’t succeed later on, the riots themselves have actually left me wondering whether — at least in the near future — any other lawmaker could have incited that type of activity.

Sure, there would have been some bitter, snarky memes shared online and perhaps a protest here and there, but the right wing would not have stormed the Capitol on behalf of Josh Hawley or Ted Cruz. They would not have brought zip ties and weaponry, engaged in a standoff with police, risked their lives, or vandalized congressional offices so that Ted Cruz could have another four years in office. But why would they? There simply is not the same level of attachment…