'My Kevin' and the Trump cult

On survival.

I wrote a big piece about Kevin McCarthy last week. And I don’t want to belabor the point of it, which is that McCarthy’s trip to Mar-a-Lago in January was a defining moment of the Republican party’s ongoing fealty to Donald Trump. (And not in a good way!)

But, something happened over the weekend that made me — yes, even me! — blanch. (Do people “blanch” anymore?)

Remember that, in the aftermath of McCarthy’s ouster as Speaker earlier this fall, the Washington Post reported that this happened:

During a phone call with McCarthy weeks after his historic Oct. 3 removal as House speaker, Trump detailed the reasons he had declined to ask Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and other hard-right lawmakers to back off their campaign to oust the California Republican from his leadership position, according to people familiar with the exchange who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose a private conversation.

During the call, Trump lambasted McCarthy for not expunging his two impeachments and not endorsing him in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the conversation.

“F--- you,” McCarthy claimed to have then told Trump, when he rehashed the call later to other people in two separate conversations, according to the people.

Which is why I was, um surprised, to see what McCarthy said in an interview this weekend with CBS News’ Bob Costa.

Two things happened in that interview:

1. McCarthy said he was endorsing Trump’s 2024 candidacy for president. “I will support the president,” he said. “I will support President Trump.”

2. McCarthy said he would be open to serving in a Trump cabinet. “In the right position, look, if, if I’m the best person for the job, yes,” he said.

So, a few weeks (at most) removed from telling Trump to eff off, McCarthy not only endorsed him but also said he would be open to serving in the Cabinet of a second term.

Amazing!

Here’s how McCarthy spun that obvious contradiction. “Look, I worked with President Trump on a lot of policies,” he said. “But we also have a relationship where we’re very honest with each other.”

What’s really driving McCarthy here? I’ll tell you in a minute — but the most important thing to understand first is that these things are all related.

McCarthy has, effectively, two paths forward professionally speaking.

The first is, yes, to serve in some role in a Trump cabinet. That could happen! Not likely, but possible.

The second road for McCarthy — and this one is far more likely — is that he winds up as a (well paid) Republican lobbyist. And the way McCarthy makes his bones as a lobbyist is if he can credibly claim that he has the president’s ear. That Trump knows him and trusts him. That’s the access McCarthy will be selling.

Either way, what McCarthy knows he needs is to be on Trump’s good side. He desperately needs that relationship to work because, if it doesn’t, McCarthy is nowhere.

And he’s nowhere for a very specific reason: Because the current version of the Republican party is not organized around a set of policies on which its elected officials can have thoughtful disagreements.

The current version of the Republican party is a cult of personality. It is NOT, fundamentally, about policies or principles or beliefs. It is about not just having but finding ways to demonstrate total and complete loyalty to Donald Trump. Anything short of utter fealty is not only frowned upon but punished — with Trump as judge, jury and executioner.

McCarthy learned this lesson after his criticism of Trump following the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He criticized Trump, watched as the base didn’t follow, and then went skulking back.

Now, to be clear, what McCarthy is doing is not, in fact, leadership. It is, in fact, the opposite. McCarthy is doing what he needs to do to survive (and thrive) in the modern Republican party.

And the only way to do that is to worship — almost literally — at the shrine of Trump. So that’s what he did (and will do).