By Brian C. Joondeph
Before President Trump, the Republican Party, and the Democrat Party for that matter, were controlled by the ruling elites of their respective parties. Neither party had any interest in those they claimed to represent, instead bowing to big money donors in exchange for power and position.

Once called the military industrial complex, it is now the globalists, wealthy individuals and families happy to hide behind foundations and corporations, ruling America without the consent of the governed, using coercion and force if necessary.

This is what candidate Trump railed against. In an important, but largely ignored speech given just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, he made his case in the opening lines.

Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. There is nothing the political establishment will not do, and no lie they will not tell, to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense. The Washington establishment, and the financial and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself.

He was running against not only the Democrats and their allies in the media, academia, Wall Street, Hollywood, and in the Beltway, but he was also fighting his own party. Republican elites, feeding off the teat of the uniparty, wanted no part in replacing a political establishment that they controlled and benefited from.
The Never Trump movement grew in response to Trump going from a comedic longshot for the Republican nomination in mid 2015 to the front runner after he systematically targeted and destroyed darlings of the GOP establishment including Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich.

Failing to prevent his nomination, they then focused on stopping his election, even if it meant Madame President, a third term for the Obama agenda. Notable NeverTrumpers included two former Republican presidents, George HW Bush and his son George W. Bush, neither of whom voted for Trump.

In the summer ahead of the 2016 election, 50 GOP officials warned, “Donald Trump would put nation’s security at risk.” So-called conservative pundits from Bill Kristol to George Will, Max Boot to Jennifer Rubin, among others, opposed Trump’s candidacy and his presidency.

Here was President Trump, crossing the swamp reminiscent of George Washington crossing the Delaware River 240 years ago, implementing a conservative agenda that countless Republicans campaigned on in their own elections. Self-described conservative pundits pushed these ideas in opinion columns, books, speeches, newsletters, and think tank white papers.

Trump brought to life everything these faux conservatives claimed to have wanted, and ironically their vitriol against him only increased. From conservative jurists to tax cuts, from regulatory reform to a strong pro-life agenda, Trump was Ronald Reagan’s third term and the NeverTrump movement loathed the man responsible.
They never let up and now in 2020 with Trump cruising to a second term, they have doubled down. If they were confident about Biden winning in November, they would not be urging him to skip the debates or to not concede when he loses.
They despise his tweets and straight talk, instead preferring the genteel demeanor of John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan, all losers when the presidency was on the line.
Perhaps the biggest reason they hate Trump is that he doesn’t need them. He has no interest in the wise council of Kristol or Boot. He didn’t hire campaign consultants like Rick Wilson or Steve Schmidt. Like teenage girls not being invited to the school dance, they pouted and formed the Lincoln Project, with a goal of electing Republicans, just not the ones with a big mouth and orange skin. Who then? Mitt Romney? He had his chance and blew it.
They claim to be all about the Constitution, which is why they are supporting Joe Biden and the Democrats who want to take away free speech and the right to bear arms, who want to tax and regulate America to death, putting the knee of the federal government on the necks of working Americans who already can’t breathe due to never-ending COVID mandates.
George Carlin was right, “It’s a big club and you (and Trump) ain’t in it.” But Trump has turned that around. The GOP is now his club and the NeverTrump cranks ain’t in it and won’t be as long as Trump runs the club. As Ivanka Trump observed in her RNC speech, “Washington hasn’t changed Donald Trump. Donald Trump changed Washington.”
Remember the Koch Brothers and Chamber of Commerce, accused of being right-wing extremists? They are in their own club and the membership committee has blackballed Trump. The Koch Brothers, traditionally backing Republicams, don’t support Trump.
The Chamber of Commerce, not just opposing Trump, will endorse and support over twenty House Democrats for reelection. Their club likes open borders for cheap labor and wants to write the crappy trade deals pushed by past Republican presidents, benefitting Wall Street but screwing Main Street.
Some Republicans have had second thoughts about which club they want to be a member of, the club of jobs or the club of mobs. The club of prosperity versus poverty, the flag versus the fist, tweets versus terror.
Famous NeverTrumper Glenn Beck changed his tune and apologized to Trump, “He proved me wrong at almost every turn.” A number of Democrat mayors in Minnesota endorsed Trump for 2020 after belatedly realizing that Democrats have made things progressively worse for their cities and constituents and that Trump has provided a lifeline out of their despair.
Trump is telling the GOP establishment that it’s his party now and they ain’t in it. This includes a bunch of ex-Bush officials now supporting Joe Biden. Most are deep swamp swimmers, assistant undersecretaries in the departments of irrelevance, with names familiar only to each other.
They never were conservative, meaning their boss President Bush wasn’t either, or they are pouting because Trump hasn’t kissed their asses and invited them into the current GOP club. Did any past Republican presidents or presidential candidates attend the RNC convention? Carter, Clinton, and Obama all spoke at the DNC convention. Where were the Bushes, Romney, Ryan? It’s no longer their club.
Republican elites may not like their party’s leader, but voters sure do. Trump’s approval, according to Pew Research, within his own party is at 87 percent, higher base support than for any president since Eisenhower. It’s Trump’s Republican party now.
As Trump said in his above-mentioned speech,

For them, it is a war – and for them, nothing is out of bounds. This is a struggle for the survival of our nation. This election will determine whether we are a free nation, or whether we have only the illusion of Democracy but are in fact controlled by a small handful of global special interests rigging the system. This is not just conspiracy but reality, and you and I know it.

Fortunately, it is Trump’s Republican Party and the crybabies standing outside and looking in can only kick and scream. But it is a big club, as the diversity of the RNC convention demonstrated, along with tens of millions of Americans ready to give Trump’s club four more years.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a Denver-based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, Rasmussen Reports, and other publications.