Was the Putin summit a turning point for Trump? Republicans say 'nah'

At an RNC meeting in Austin, near the Museum of the Weird, attendees had few criticisms of the president

A former director of the CIA cried treason. John McCain called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory”. Another Republican senator, Bob Corker, said: “The dam is finally breaking.”

So was this week a turning point for Donald Trump?

“Nah,” said Ada Fisher, a Republican National Committee member, when asked if the Russian rumpus had altered her opinion of the US president.

Despite stinging criticism of Trump in Washington this week, a small sampling of influential party workers visiting Texas and a poll of the general public suggest conservatives across the country are generally shrugging off Trump’s curiously cordial relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Trump met privately with the Russian president in Helsinki on Monday; then, at a press conference, he rejected the findings of the US intelligence community and sided with the head of a country that tried to influence the 2016 election. He later made a maladroit effort at damage control, after widespread outrage at his performance.

But at the quarterly meeting of the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Republican party’s leadership, fundraising and strategy group, there was no evidence of the dam cracking, or even springing the smallest of leaks.

Senior state-level officials are among the RNC’s 168 members.

“I don’t think anybody in the RNC thinks that [Trump’s] a Russian puppet,” said Fisher, who is from North Carolina. “I think that would be a gross misperception. The RNC is pretty much solidly behind Mr Trump. I wish he’d tone down his rhetoric sometimes but other than that, the basic principles of what he says aren’t a problem at all.

“I would like to see him not criticise [US intelligence] but you have to remember, President Obama went on an apology tour. He talked about all the things this country did wrong. What Trump is saying is, ‘Let’s get this stuff right, clean out all the things that are going on that aren’t right.’ And I don’t disagree with him.”

Jonathan Barnett, from Arkansas, also dismissed accusations of treason.

“He has every right to meet with any world leader that he wants,” he said. “His job is to build relationships and that’s what he’s doing. Every week is going to be a big news week with Trump. He corrected himself, there was some learning curve there for him, and he’s done the best he can to correct it.

“Obviously there are going to be those who are going to criticise him but they’re going to criticise him for anything that he says. This committee stands strong, stands behind him and wants to support him. We’re interested not only in the 2018 elections, we’re interested in the 2020 elections as well.”

A poll by Axios of 2,100 US adults found that 79% of Republican respondents approved of the way Trump handled his press conference with Putin, compared with 7% of Democrats and 33% of independents. The numbers underscored how impervious Trump is to criticism and why many Republicans fear opposing him will jeopardise their prospects in November.

The electorate, said Wayne MacDonald, chairman of the Republican party of New Hampshire, would not be swayed by bad reviews of a foreign policy interaction.

“I have enough trust in the voters that they’re going to look at the big picture,” he said, “and they’re going to look at everything else that’s going well, they’re going to look at our efforts with North Korea and other international efforts of this president along with his many domestic accomplishments. The picture in totality is going to look very good.”

Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina Republican party, said: “Nothing has changed in terms of what I’m hearing from the grassroots. Everybody’s engaged, everybody’s excited. Tempests in teapots come and go with increasing rapidity. To the extent that we keep focused on the fundamentals and set hysterical headlines aside, we’re going to be successful.

“People who live inside the bubble think that everybody else is paying attention to what’s going on inside the bubble. I’m here to tell you that’s just not true – much to the consternation of everybody whose job it is to create the bubble. People are living their lives on a daily basis, they’ve got family to deal with, they’ve got jobs to deal with, etc, etc. And they don’t spend their entire day worrying about what the bubble says they should worry about.”

Musuem of the Weird

The RNC’s spring conference took place in May, at a Trump resort near Miami. This week’s event was held at a hotel in one of the many glassy towers that now loom over downtown Austin, conveniently located near a barbecue joint and the Museum of the Weird.

On Friday the RNC announced that Charlotte, North Carolina, will host the Republican National Convention in 2020. It will be, according to the RNC chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, “the perfect place for our party to re-nominate President Trump and VP Mike Pence”.

It was the highest-profile decision in a three-day event with only two sessions open to the media. On the back of impressive fundraising numbers, grassroots preparations for November’s midterm elections were at the heart of the gathering.

At a meeting of the standing committee on rules, attendees were told they were “in a battle for the heart and soul of our nation”. This seemed an extravagant opening to an hour-long discussion about technicalities, but it was a reminder that for plenty of Republicans, Trump is an effective vehicle for core conservative policies.

Though Trump’s press conference display in Helsinki was “not good”, said Matt Mackowiak, chairman of the Austin-area Travis county GOP, “I don’t think there’s a crisis here at all …

“From time to time he has controversial days. I think for most Republicans, people who are involved in the party, they try to step back and take the long view. What’s he accomplishing? What he does is a lot more important than what he says.”

Mackowiak added that the scale of Democratic fury was a sign of Republican success.

“If Trump were ineffective they wouldn’t be protesting,” he said. “They’re going crazy because he’s been effective.”