Trump’s control over party in focus as Republicans convene, post-shooting

The words read like one of his social media posts. Sentences abruptly shifted into uppercase letters. Warnings of chaos and instability, and false claims about immigration, leapt from the page. And sprinkled throughout was his trademark catchphrase, “Make America Great Again”.

But this was no social media screed from former United States President Donald Trump. Instead, it was the new draft platform for the Republican Party, released in advance of its national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The RNC has said the convention will proceed as scheduled and Trump has confirmed that he will attend the event as planned, despite Saturday’s assassination attempt.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the Republican Party has rallied around Trump, pushing the image of the former president with his fist raised, blood streaking down his cheek. Even traditional detractors in the party, such as former President George W Bush, have condemned the assassination attempt.

The apparent takeover of the party by Trump is likely to be visible throughout the convention this week.

For the Republican Party has indeed become the party of Trump, say experts. Recent changes within the party and its leadership offer a glimpse at Trump’s plans for the White House, should he succeed in being re-elected this November.

Kathleen Dolan, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, noted that Trump and his supporters already have a clear plan for his second term.

Part of their agenda involves consolidating power, much as Trump has done within the Republican Party.

Committee changes

The convention will affirm Trump’s leadership over the party. During the four-day event, Trump will receive his party’s nomination for the presidency, with speakers taking the stage to support his candidacy.

A new platform

The Trump campaign’s influence over the new party platform also indicates how the Republican National Committee and campaign have fused.

“It closes the circle on the platform of the Republican Party being the personification of whatever Donald Trump believes and wants that platform to be,” Dolan told Al Jazeera.

The platform had not been updated since 2016, due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the convention neared, members of the party’s platform committee gathered to create a draft that could be presented at the gathering.

Trump’s campaign, however, pushed to present a “streamlined” platform that would minimise opportunities for Democrats to attack the Republican candidate.

The party also refused to televise the platform committee’s meetings, in a break with past election cycles. There was no opportunity for compromise on the platform, Dolan noted.

“It was a very closed process and presented with a document that was approved. That’s different from how platforms usually happen,” she explained.

“Again, that shows us that it is all very tightly and completely controlled by a small group of people and in service to what former President Trump wants the platform to say.”

For example, the Republican Party platform has long supported a national ban on abortion. But in the latest edition, the platform committee dropped abortion almost entirely, except for a single line opposing late-term abortion. Trump said during the recent debate that the matter should be left to individual states.

Dolan argued that changing the platform’s language was merely a strategic move for November.

She pointed out that one of Trump’s main talking points is taking credit for appointing the justices who overturned Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that previously upheld a federal right to abortion.

“I don’t think he’s pushing the party to be more moderate,” Dolan said. “They understand that they are vulnerable among voters if they are seen as too extreme.”

“But that does not in any way signal a shift in their thinking,” she added. “This is just politics, and they’re trying to hide their real positions.”

Consolidating power

The way Trump has tightened his grip on the Republican National Committee has aligned with some of the goals of a proposal called Project 2025.

Written by some of Trump’s closest allies, Project 2025 is a nearly 900-page policy document that outlines a plan for the presidency if Trump is re-elected.

Trump has denied knowledge of the project, which was helmed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Still, analysts have noted overlaps between its proposals and Trump’s own stated goals.

For instance, Project 2025 suggests reducing career staffers and replacing them with hand-picked political appointees. Trump has hinted at rallies that he would take similar steps if re-elected.

And the Republican National Committee, under Lara Trump’s leadership, fired about 60 staffers, aiming to empower Trump loyalists.

Mary Guy, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, said Trump’s consolidation of power within the committee echoes Project 2025’s plans to “do away with a professional, experienced workforce and replace it with political loyalists”.

Guy pointed out that the Heritage Foundation is “a parking lot for out-of-work Trump appointees”.

At least 140 people who worked for Trump while he was president helped put together the Project 2025 playbook, according to CNN. About 20 pages were credited to his first deputy chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

For Guy, Trump’s influence over the Republican National Committee — and the proposals laid out in Project 2025 — foreshadow a shift in the division of power within the federal government.

She explained that the framers of the US Constitution envisioned checks and balances between Congress, the executive branch and the judiciary.

Congress was chief among the three, she added. “Their belief was that [Congress] was the most representative body. And it really had to be the body that drives America’s decisions and actions.”

A key strategy of Project 2025, however, is to focus power within the executive branch, allowing the president to control the other arms of government.

“What’s happening is, a desire is moving forward from Trump and his acolytes to make him as if he were a king,” Guy said.

Henry Olsen, senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Ethics and Public Policy Center, said he rejects rumours that Trump had a direct hand in Project 2025.

Still, he too believed that, if Trump is re-elected, the Republican leader “will exert a stronger, direct control of the personnel of the executive branch than he did in his first term”.