Current and former Republican elected officials, former Trump officials, and conservative media figures are starting to move on from Donald Trump. They want to see new faces emerge. They want fresh ideas. And they want a Republican who can win in 2024.
Trump is none of these things. His scandals are a constant driver of media coverage, and he endlessly whines about losing the 2020 election. As many of these leading Republicans warn, he’s also been the architect of the Republicans’ loss of the House, Senate, and presidency.
We’re collecting their quotes to show that Trump’s latest run at the presidency will end the same way as his last two: with Republicans losing. These Republicans are ready to move on. Are you?
Quotes
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“He is a proven loser. He cost us the House in ’18, he cost us the White House in ’20, he cost us the Senate again and again.”
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“We were told we’d get tired of winning. But I’m tired of losing. And so are most Republicans.”
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“I think the former president’s political clout has diminished.”
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“Donald Trump is wholly unfit for office and a clear and present danger to democracy. Republicans, please take him on.”
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“Any elected leader needs to meet some basic criteria: they need to be able to put country over self, they need to have a certain amount of integrity and principle, they need to be able to reach across the aisle and bring people together and unite the country…Donald Trump doesn’t meet those marks for me.”
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“It would be a bad mistake for the Republicans to have Donald Trump as their nominee in 2024.”
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“It’s clear that running on relitigating the 2020 election is not a winning strategy.”
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“President Trump is the first president, in the Republican side at least, to lose the House, the Senate and the presidency in four years.”
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“Let’s see who runs. Personally, I don’t think it’s good for the party…I think his policies were good. I just don’t need all the drama with it.”
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“The question is: who is the current leader of the Republican Party? Oh, I know who it is: Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis is the leader of the Republican Party, whether he wants to be or not.”
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“Looking forward is always a better campaign strategy. Looking back on 2020 obviously didn’t work out. We ought to look forward.”
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“It’s like the aging pitcher who keeps losing games. If we want to win, we need a different pitcher on the mound.”
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“None of us are entitled to these jobs. He’s certainly not entitled to it. And I certainly won’t be making any decision (to endorse) this soon.”
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“I want someone who is going to unite our party. That’s how we win elections. A reasonable person who would unite the party.”
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“We’ve got a deep bench, so that’s a really good thing. I think it will be healthy to have a lot of people on the Republican side offering their visions.”
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“I think we have lots of Republicans who are interested in being our nominee for president. … And I’m interested in seeing those people rise to the top.”
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“We have to be smart enough to say, ‘I want to win.‘ I can’t stick with one person and ride the ship down.”
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“I think Governor DeSantis has done a great job. … I think, much like myself, Ron’s been fighting for conservative values and to keep his state moving forward. And I think he got rewarded on Election Day for that.”
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“One of the messages from the election, for Republicans generally, is we need to as a party to move past President Trump and to move on to an agenda that represents the voices of all those in the party and the people of the country.”
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“I’m certainly plotting a different path than President Trump plotted. If you want a governor who is exactly like Donald Trump, I’m probably not your guy. I like to work with the other side. I like to kind of bring people together. That certainly was not his style.”
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“I could not support him. I just couldn’t.”
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“If the GOP can’t learn to shake the Trump obsession with alleged election fraud, the former president could even hand Democrats the White House—again.”
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“How about this? When Donald Trump won in 2016, he said we were going to get so tired of winning we would ask him to stop winning so much. I’m tired of losing.”
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“Since 2016, Republicans have done nothing but lose, and Republican voters are paying the price for it. Doubling down on losing isn’t just foolish. It’s a gift to the Democrats. It is time to turn the page.”
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“Trump is correct on Biden’s failures, but his self-indulging message promoting anger has not changed. It didn’t work in 2022 and won’t work in 2024. There are better choices.”
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“People don’t think the country is on the right track, they don’t feel it, they also don’t want an angry nation. They want to try and figure out how to solve problems. It was pretty clear from the elections that the angrier you were the less likely you were to be elected.”
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“In my travel since the election around Pennsylvania, I’ve heard from many, many formerly very pro-Trump voters that they think it’s time for our party to move on.”
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“I’ll never vote for him. But I won’t have to, because I think America’s tired. And there’s absolutely forceful, qualified, morally, defensible, and upright people. And that’s what I want. That’s what I want in my party. And that’s what I want to see.”
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“I don’t think Donald Trump should run again. I’m going to actively campaign against Donald Trump and make sure that we have got four or five really great Republicans right now.”
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“I’m not pro-Trump, I’m not anti-Trump. I’m like most of America. We’re just moving on.”