Republicans debate a future without Trump

Republicans gathering in Dallas this week will celebrate President Donald Trump and rally support ahead of U.S. midterm elections, but a disappointing showing in the November 3 vote could sharpen an already simmering debate over ​who comes next and what will become of the party he transformed. Little is likely to be said publicly about moving beyond Trump. But party officials said they expect the issue will surface in behind-the-scenes conversations ​among donors, strategists and lawmakers.

While the Iran war has unsettled some Trump supporters, Trump’s influence is expected to be enduring. MAGA has changed the Republican Party, and they are not going back. His supporters largely embraced an “America First” agenda skeptical of alliances, foreign interventions and international institutions, elevating economic nationalism and restrictive immigration policies into defining features of the party. Since winning the presidency in 2016, Trump has abandoned long-held Republican positions on issues such as free trade, broadened the party’s appeal among working-class voters and often placed personal loyalty above ideological orthodoxy.

No Republicans expect a return to ​the interventionist foreign policy and free-market orthodoxy of former Presidents George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan. Instead, they see Trump’s hardline approach to immigration, skepticism of free trade and distrust of institutions continuing, alongside a greater focus on courting working-class voters ‌with a populist ⁠message. Many Republicans see Vance, 42, as the leading heir to Trump’s political movement, citing his youth and roots in the party’s populist, anti-establishment wing, where much of the party’s energy now resides. Rubio, 55, is a more conventional Republican politician and a foreign-policy hawk. The ⁠two men could steer the party in different directions.

Vance would likely carry forward Trump’s populist agenda, from protectionist trade policies to culture-war politics, while Rubio, by contrast, might seek to soften tariffs, ease tensions with allies and temper some of Trump’s harder-edged policies, including on immigration. But for now, discussions about a post-Trump future remain largely ​behind closed doors, away from the main stage at the Dallas convention.