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Darren Samuelsohn

1 Feb, 12 tweets, 4 min read

@eliza_relman

NEW: Republicans know they are leaderless without Donald Trump in the White House, and their public comments are starting to show it. by @eliza_relman @leonardkl @elvina_nawaguna & @davelevinthal ($) @Politicsinsider businessinsider.com/trump-gop-repu…

Insider interviewed a dozen GOP senators in recent days to ask them point blank whether they'd count Trump as the person currently in charge of the Republican Party, or if they'd bestow that title on someone else.

Their answers suggest it's indeed a wide-open race that won't be settled anytime soon.

Some Republican elected officials said that the former president now living in his private South Florida club holds the title until another member of the GOP comes along and claims it.

Others point to the House and Senate minority leaders who have little power to influence the Washington agenda right now except to rock the boat while President Joe Biden and his Democratic majorities in Congress try to govern.

"We don't have a leader of the Republican Party," Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, a Republican who isn't running for a fourth term in the upcoming 2022 midterms, said in an interview that summed up the situation the most directly.

The concept of a leaderless GOP shouldn't be that big a surprise. It's what happens whenever a party loses the White House and majority control on both ends of the US Capitol.

But the power dynamics are anything but normal here in 2021 as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy adopt differing paths forward for the GOP while Trump continues to hold out the prospect of running to win back the White House in 2024.

"The technical head of the Republican Party is hard to nail when you don't have the executive," said North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, an early Republican backer of Trump from the 2016 campaign.

Cramer cited the roles played by McConnell and McCarthy but also agreed with many Republicans interviewed by Insider who said that Trump "certainly has the most influence" in the party right now.

"I think he's the former president," Sen. Ted Cruz, a one-time Trump rival from 2016 who later became a staunch Trump ally, said when asked by Insider what he sees as Trump's role in GOP politics.

"He's the most prominent Republican in the country," replied Sen. Marco Rubio, who like Cruz is widely viewed as a possible 2024 presidential candidate. "A lot of people continue to support him ... he'll continue to be influential no matter what decision he makes."

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