The stage was set for the non-Trump field. He stole the show.
The former president found a supportive audience at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering even after his Hezbollah comments.
LAS VEGAS — A gathering of Republican presidential aspirants Saturday had all the ingredients for a Donald Trump pile-on.
Instead, it turned into a demonstration of the former president’s dominance in the race — and how swiftly his perceived missteps can be forgotten.
Of all the Republican presidential contenders who spoke at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference Saturday, Trump received the most sustained applause, with some in the crowd of over 1,000 people holding their iPhones aloft to get a picture of the former president.
He made no reference to comments he’d offered just two weeks ago criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and describing Hezbollah as “very smart” in the aftermath of the attacks in Israel that had killed 1,400. Nor did the crowd seem to fixate on them.
“People judge him for what he does,” said Matt Brooks, the RJC’s chief executive officer, referencing elements of Trump’s record like moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, “as opposed to the noise.”
Moments earlier, a more vivid illustration of the hold Trump has on the party came when his one-time vice president, Mike Pence, announced he was suspending his campaign. The former vice president had almost no money left and little chance of making the debate stage in less than two weeks. But his departure from the race, for many in the party, represented something larger than tactical hurdles: Proof that there was no reward for those who stood up to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump, in his speech, didn’t even bother mentioning his vice president.
Instead, he acknowledged several of his supporters in attendance, including “Pawn Stars” host Rick Harrison. The former president is expected to have dinner Saturday night with Republican mega-donor Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. The planned dinner was first reported by The Messenger.
“He’s got an incredible reservoir of goodwill in the Jewish community,” said Brooks. “He’s the frontrunner in a multicandidate field, and there are people supporting the other candidates as well. … But there’s no question, you saw by the response today, the strength of his support.”
Few, if any, politicians can swim through crises like Trump, who has survived more than a handful of episodes that pundits predicted would cause his political demise. But his primary campaign this go around has been defined less by political missteps (his legal troubles notwithstanding) than how he’s avoided them.