Trump critic Cheney loses Republican primary
Former US President Donald Trump's strongest intra-party critic, Representative Liz Cheney, has lost the Wyoming Republican primary election. Trump supporter Harriet Hageman prevailed by a large margin and will now run as a candidate in the midterm elections. Europe's press is very concerned about this outcome.
No sign of crumbling support
The Wiener Zeitung points to how Europe has indulged in naïve wishful thinking:
“Some liberal commentators speculate that the FBI's recent raid on Trump's estate could be a turning point. That it might be too much for moderate Republicans to bear when an ex-president may have hoarded secret documents at his home and is once again savagely attacking the judiciary. However, there are no signs that support for Trump among voters or even in the Republican Party is crumbling, unless one talks oneself into believing it. But precisely such wishful thinking has often caught politicians and observers on the wrong foot in the past. Also and especially in Europe - and with fatal consequences.”
Rationality no longer counts
El Mundo also believes Trump will definitely run for election:
“The crushing defeat of Congresswoman Liz Cheney is proof of the enormous influence the populist leader still wields, both within his party and in American society. ... Despite his constant lies and the fact that he even encouraged the attack on the Capitol, Trump's candidacy now seems unstoppable. The polarisation is so strong that rationality seems to have been excluded from public life in the US.”
A disastrous fantasy
The Times finds it worrying that Cheney's opponent Harriet Hageman is intentionally fuelling Trump's conspiracy theories even though she knows they're not true:
“From January, Wyoming will have a coward for a congresswoman. ... So while Hageman almost certainly doesn't herself believe the 'stolen election' conspiracy, many of the new Republican representatives do, and she and others have helped them indulge their dark fantasy. It's a fantasy that could well lead to civil disaster.”