OPINION | Why the tide may be turning against Trump

This comedian predicts Trump's plan for 2024 2:19

Editor's Note:

Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis), a former CNN correspondent and producer, is a world affairs columnist.

She is a weekly opinion writer for CNN, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, and a columnist for the World Politics Review.

The opinions expressed in this column are yours.

See more opinion on CNN.

(CNN) -

What is that we are listening to? Is it the sound of prominent conservatives and Trump allies openly berating former President Donald Trump? Are these the first whispers of a conservative reaction against Trump? And is it possible that a political lane will open for another Republican presidential candidate in 2024?

It's too early to tell, of course, and there's plenty of evidence that those who oppose the vengeful Trump will end up crushed by his intimidating ways or by his loyal supporters, with little support from the rest of the Republican Party. And yet it is noteworthy that in the last few days we have heard from two leading figures in the conservative field tell Trump that he should stop complaining about the election he lost and let the Republican Party focus on real issues, on instead of in your fantasies.

The statements of Rupert Murdoch - who controls a media empire that includes, among other properties, the blatantly pro-Trump Fox News - and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, an adviser who worked with the former president and helped him prepare for the presidential debates during the 2020 elections; It can serve as a test for Republicans who understand how damaging Trump's dominance over the Republican Party is and how it could ultimately bring the party down.

It was surprising when Murdoch, addressing his company at its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, said that the United States faces a series of important political decisions that conservatives will not take shape unless Trump moves forward. "The current American political debate is deep," he said, citing education, welfare and economic opportunity. "It is crucial that conservatives play an active and forceful role in that debate," he added, "but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the past."

Murdoch is not alone in arguing that Trump is a threat to conservatives.

Christie, who just published a new book that looks a lot like her unofficial entry into the 2024 presidential race, is making the same case, only more forcefully.

• ANALYSIS |

  Is the world of Fox News and Murdoch turning against Trump?

Consider the title of the book by Christie, which effectively label Trump as a threat to the Republican Party "Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden" (which translates as

). Keep in mind that Trump fits two of the three reasons the party needs to be saved (because of Christie, presumably).

Murdoch and Christie are not the first Republicans to face the former president, but their reproaches to Trump are starkly different. Early Trump critics, such as Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and others, became passionate advocates once their criticisms proved dangerous to their own position. His backsliding reminds me of a quote often attributed to Groucho Marx: "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ... well, I have others."

Christie says that many in the Republican Party are afraid of Trump, whose "conduct is designed to instill fear." Conservative Republicans who refuse to follow the line, like Representative Liz Cheney, are being expelled from a party that is increasingly remaking itself on the rabid, iconoclastic and bigoted brand of the former president.

Sure, Murdoch and Christie's words may not change the course of the Republican Party either, but their criticisms are different.

Both helped Trump throughout his presidency, and it is significant that they are the ones who are now speaking out against him.

His plea to stop complaining about the latest election, however, will only fall on deaf ears, as Trump is simply unable to admit that he lost.

But Murdoch and Christie are sending an important message to other party members, and the rest of the country, that continuing to support Trump is dangerously insane.

• ANALYSIS |

  Trump is in attack mode as Biden celebrates a victory that was eluding him

Coincidentally or not, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel finally acknowledged Biden's victory on Thursday, more than a year after the 2020 vote. "Painfully, Joe Biden won the election and it's very painful to watch. He is. He's the president. We know that, "McDaniel conceded.

To be sure, Murdoch and Christie have their own personal reasons for speaking out against Trump right now, and there is plenty of evidence to justify the charges of hypocrisy. Murdoch, whose Fox News, home to Tucker Carlson, a purveyor of harmful lies and propaganda about everything from the covid vaccine to American democracy, continues to serve Trump's goals. But Fox News now faces multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuits brought by two voting technology companies that allege the network spread false claims of voter fraud.

Murdoch could be driven by fear of liability and the potential damage that additional lawsuits could inflict on his bottom line if Fox News continues to follow Trump into a den of conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims.

There is also the possibility that he worries about the future of conservative politics, and he really fears that the Republican Party will be trampled on if Trump does not stop pressing.

Christie, for her part, is trying to promote her book and her prospects for occupying the White House.

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Yet it is remarkable that they have done the math and decided that they can benefit from speaking out against the former president, even after other Republicans have been badly hurt by doing the same.

I think your calculation makes sense.

With President Joe Biden's approval ratings dropping, the conventional wisdom seems to be that Democrats are doomed.

But it is the Republicans who can be doomed if they continue with the former president.

There is no question that the Biden administration is terrible at delivering messages.

The economy is booming, yet consumers are pessimistic.

Meanwhile, Biden is making major legislative breakthroughs, and the inflationary pressures that are creating the false impression that the economy is failing could be resolved in time to boost the fortunes of the Democrats.

Even if Democrats are still down in 2024, it's hard to imagine voters looking forward to another four years of Trumpian mayhem.

Biden may seem uninspiring now, but the former president, who had the most consistently low approval ratings of any president in the modern era, remains highly unpopular and controversial.

• ANALYSIS | House Democrats are finally about to pass Biden's huge social spending bill

Do Republicans want a candidate mired in endless - and serious - legal trouble? According to The New York Times, prosecutors are likely to involve an investigative jury in Georgia in the criminal investigation of the former president's attempt to overturn the 2020 election (in September, he suggested he was being an unfair target, saying, "Even the prosecutor Fulton County District is after me "). Meanwhile, New York prosecutors have convened a second investigative jury to hear evidence about the Trump Organization's business practices, according to The Washington Post. (The first investigative jury, which met this spring, indicted two Trump companies and an executive of tax evasion. Trump, who was not indicted, criticized the indictment and called the investigation a "political witch hunt ").

A Pew poll, conducted in September, found that two-thirds of Republicans want Trump to remain a major force in the party, but only 44% want him to run again. A third of Republicans and 92% of Democrats do not want him to be a major national political figure in the future. That is not the arithmetic of victory.

There is a possibility that a post-Trump Republican Party will gain traction.

It still seems like a long shot at this point, but if its critics succeed in persuading the Republican Party to move in a different direction, there is a chance that American democracy could revert to something akin to normalcy, where political leaders debate what Policies are the best for America, not afraid to upset the tender and explosive feelings of a very bad loser.

Donald trump