Trump’s Grip on the GOP Tightens as the Field Widens

Republican voters just aren’t ready to quit Donald Trump, even if the party’s donors and political strategists would prefer almost any other candidate.

That much was evident in mid-April in Manchester, New Hampshire, where a small crowd of Trump die-hards stood across the street from a downtown hotel where Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was slated to speak. They waved oversize Trump 2024 flags, while some cars drove by and honked in solidarity. They professed their devotion to the former president, whose indictment by the Manhattan district attorney weeks earlier on charges of falsifying business records only served to increase his popularity. “Trump is a businessman, not a politician. He is not in the deep state, and that is why they hate him so much,” said Paula Johnson, a real estate agent in nearby Nashua. “That indictment was the biggest joke in the world.”