<u+201c>this is a gigantic event in the history of american politics,<u+201d> said one former gop white house staffer.  | getty some express willingness to work with the president-elect, while others bemoan the future of their party. by katie glueck 11/09/16 03:36 am est there was resignation and grief, anger and cautious optimism. but for the most part, there was abject shock among the significant segment of the gop that had been wary of donald trump, as state after state landed in his column tuesday night <u+2014> followed quickly by the realization that win or lose, this is now trump<u+2019>s republican party. story continued below <u+201c>shocked, actually,<u+201d> said peter wehner, a veteran of the bush white house and a vocal trump opponent, when asked for reaction to the fact that trump was in striking distance of the presidency early wednesday morning. <u+201c>like most americans. and like most trump supporters. <u+201c>this is a gigantic event in the history of american politics,<u+201d> he added. polls had consistently given hillary clinton an edge both nationally and in a bevy of swing states, several of which she went on to lose wednesday night. and there were plenty of republicans who privately hoped that she would win, and win decisively enough that trump loyalists wouldn<u+2019>t have cause to point fingers at his republican critics and blame a loss on them. <u+201c>i mean, yes, yes i<u+2019>m surprised,<u+201d> said former new hampshire gop chairman fergus cullen, another prominent trump critic. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m wondering if i should be packing my bags and driving to montreal before dawn. i have to confess, i<u+2019>ve underestimated donald trump for 18 months. i underestimated his appeal in the primary, his staying power, his appeal in the last two weeks. i<u+2019>m humbled by this.<u+201d> off message by glenn thrush for his own part, trump is now the leader of a party that struggled throughout the campaign to fully accept him. in the lead-up to tuesday, many conservatives who detested trump fretted that a strong showing from him on election day would fundamentally alter the direction of the republican party, pushing it, in their view, in a more populist, nativist and isolationist direction that they would find intolerable. <u+201c>the sense of vindication, the triumph of the righteous, the sense of vengeful glee [from trump backers] will be off the charts because they will have seen themselves as defeating not just the mainstream media and the left but the conservative intelligentsia and the conservative establishment,<u+201d> predicted david french, a conservative trump critic who considered mounting a third-party run, describing the scenario of a trump victory in an interview before the election. <u+201c>those opposed to trump have minimal to non-existent ability to shape the short-term, medium-term direction of the party," french fretted. "the party is tied to him for the 2020 re-elect ... if trump<u+2019>s expressed nationalist views, protectionist views become the norm, his unconcern for social issues well outside the ideology millions of americans, they will immediately become homeless, and to a degree be up for grabs.<u+201d> but as results rolled in, other conservatives and republicans indicated that they were willing to give trump a chance, at least as they processed the bombshell results that had them rethinking everything. some went so far as to extend a public olive branch. <u+201c>if @realdonaldtrump wins, as a latino conservative i<u+2019>ll work with him on many issues we agree on + also 2 address immigration constructively,<u+201d> tweeted alfonso aguilar, a prominent republican latino who had lambasted trump over his harsh rhetoric toward immigrants. by kenneth p. vogel and alex isenstadt added noah pollak, a gop foreign policy operative who has previously criticized trump<u+2019>s national security posture, <u+201c>i feel like i want to withhold judgment now. i think it<u+2019>s very surprising and we have to look and see over the next months, assuming he wins, as a trump transition takes shape<u+2026>what<u+2019>s truly remarkable is just the obvious thing. everyone misread this. all the polling was wrong.<u+201d> republicans<u+2014>those who liked trump and those who did not<u+2014>cheered the fact that congress will remain in gop hands, and some who are skeptical of the new president moved to pin their hopes on paul ryan and the rest of the republican legislature (even though trump<u+2019>s allies have frequently criticized ryan, who has had a relatively cool relationship with trump). brendan steinhauser, a conservative operative based in texas and a sharp trump critic, said he hoped trump would tone down the heated rhetoric toward immigrants, and expressed optimism that by working with a gop-controlled congress, there would still be opportunities to make the case to a president trump for, for example, more free trade<u+2014>one of many gop orthodoxies that trump shredded. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m looking at congress to do that, i think that<u+2019>s the way it should be anyway,<u+201d> he said. donald trump's full remarks on the election night. 11/09/16 04:24 am est austin barbour, a respected republican operative based in mississippi, had long been skeptical of trump<u+2019>s path. but in a phone call tuesday night, he said that the voters had made their preferences clear, and suggested that the entire rest of the party should take that message to heart. <u+201c>everybody who was outside the inner circle of the trump campaign or the most ardent trump supporters in the country, we<u+2019>re all wrong and currently are surprised about the outcome of the election,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>but it<u+2019>s very clear that the american voter has said, we want real change, this is the man we want to lead the change, and the republican party can no longer be a party that doesn<u+2019>t put at the top issues that matter to working-class voters.<u+201d> but others still made clear that they had little interest in getting on board with a president trump. <u+201c>you can reach me in new zealand for around the next, oh, say, four years,<u+201d> emailed wehner. by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz by jack shafer
anti-trump republicans wake up to new world - politico
kenneth p. vogel alex isenstadt jack shafer