Description
The ascension of Donald Trump to the American Presidency was branded as one of the most intriguing and surprising political phenomena of the 21st century. Donald Trump, the candidate, was an unsophisticated, big-moneyed outsider to the powerful corridors of Washington. Yet, his campaign, dubbed the most divisive one in a long time, successfully established him in the oval office. During his four years in the white house and two years post his exit, Donald Trump has remained the last word in the GOP. Those who opposed Donald Trump were cast out or fell from grace. The neo-conservatives, too, could do little to stymie the rise of an isolationist Donald. Interestingly, Donald Trump’s campaign received support from traditional workers, mostly Hispanics in the sunshine states, particularly Florida. Further, Trump also gained favor with Black and minority voters in some states, apart from getting several Muslim and Black leaders to band with him as allies. The midterms saw Trump’s unlikely allies like Herschel Walker, a Black, and Mehmet Oz, a Muslim, and Rayla Campbell, a black woman, enter the fray, swanking their endorsement by Donald Trump.
This paper attempts to understand and explain the remodeling of the Republican Party as a party of classical conservatives that draws leaders and voters of all colors and races if they agree on the central conservative tenets. The author argues that Donald Trump, despite his Xenophobic, White-Supremacist, and Islamophobic antecedents and antics, has shaped and proffered the GOP as a classical conservative party and enabled it to lose the image of a white-only party. The paper is an analytical study of Trump’s campaigns, voting patterns, and leadership during the Trump years to understand the Republican Party’s forays and gains and the coming of a party of un-hyphenated Americans.
Keywords: Classical Conservatism, GOP, Republican Party, Remodeling.
