6 voormalige bondgenoten die zich tegen Trump hebben gekeerd

6 voormalige bondgenoten van Trump die zich nu tegen hem gekeerd hebben

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  Bill Barr, the attorney general who broke with Trump over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election

  Barr was regarded as one of Trump's closest allies and canniest officials during his stint as attorney general in 2019 and 2020.

  He played a key role in fending off legal scandals that embroiled Trump, notably the 2019 release of the special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

  In March, Barr changed course and published a memoir in which he was highly critical of his former boss and said he'd opposed Trump's bid to cling to power after his defeat in 2020.

  More recently he's criticized Trump's decision to take government records with him to Mar-a-Lago after leaving office, and in a scathing New York Post op-ed article he called on the Republican Party to move on from Trump after the midterms.

  "Among the current crop of potential nominees, Trump is the person least able to unite the party and the one most likely to lose the general election," Barr wrote.

  Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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  Mike Pence, the ultraloyal vice president who grew steadily more vocal in his opposition to Trump

  Pence, Trump's vice president, played an important role in attracting the conservative evangelical voters who were a key part of Trump's support base.

  But his refusal to help Trump's bid to overturn his election defeat in 2020 provoked Trump's fury.

  Pence became a hated figure for hardline Trump supporters, some of whom chanted for his execution during the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Pence was forced to flee alongside other members of Congress.

  Pence mostly declined to criticize Trump in the wake of the riot. But amid speculation that he's considering a rival presidential bid, he's become more openly hostile.

  In a recent interview with ABC News, Pence described Trump's words and actions on January 6, 2021, as "reckless."

  "The president's words that day at the rally endangered me and my family and everyone at the Capitol," Pence said.

  PhoPhoto by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images

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  Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state taking swipes at Trump from afar

  As secretary of state, Pompeo represented Trump's "America First" foreign-policy agenda on the world stage.

  Like Pence, he's rumored to be a potential 2024 rival to Trump. Though Pompeo hasn't criticized Trump by name, has appeared to aim jibes at him.

  "We were told we'd get tired of winning. But I'm tired of losing. And so are most Republicans," Pompeo tweeted after the midterms, flipping Trump's boast before the 2016 election that Republicans should be so successful under his leadership that they'd get bored of winning.

  He's also criticized Trump's recent dinner with Ye and the white nationalist Nick Fuentes. "We stand with the Jewish people in the fight against the world's oldest bigotry," Pompeo tweeted.

  Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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  Chris Christie, a former confidant who now says Trump is dragging the GOP down

  Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, was one of the first prominent Republicans to endorse Trump when he launched his insurgent bid for the presidency in 2015.

  But Christie was fired as the head of Trump's transition team after his 2016 victory, reportedly at the urging of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose father Christie had prosecuted.

  Christie is now a frequent critic of Trump on cable-news shows, and he's described Trump as a serial loser in the wake of the midterms.

  "We all remember in 2016 he said if he got elected there was going to be so much winning and winning and winning and winning, they'd get sick of winning," Christie recently said on ABC. "None of us knew at the time he was actually talking about the Democrats."

  AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File

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  Stephanie Grisham, the press secretary who resigned after the Capitol riot

  Grisham served as White House press secretary under Trump and as a top aide to Melania Trump.

  She left the White House after the Capitol riot and revealed damaging behind-the-scenes information about Trump in her memoir in October 2021. She's now a frequent critic of Trump on cable TV.

  She has said she feels remorse at having worked for Trump, whom she's described as a "con man," and has called for the GOP to distance itself from Trump in the wake of the midterm elections.

  "The Republican Party really needs to look within right now and decide are we going to go with the voters, who hire us, or are we going to go with this one man, Donald Trump?" she told CNN in November.

  Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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  John Bolton, the former national security advisor who says a second Trump term would be "unacceptable"

  Bolton served as Trump's national security advisor, pushing a hawkish strategy on threats from adversaries including Venezuela and Iran.

  He turned against Trump shortly after leaving office, and in his 2020 memoir he described chaos and dysfunction in the Trump administration.

  Bolton has also criticized Trump over the GOP's midterm failings and suggested he could launch his own presidential bid in 2024 to frustrate Trump's bid.

  "There's one thing that would get me to get into the presidential race, which I looked at in prior elections, it would be to make it clear to the people of this country that Donald Trump is unacceptable as the Republican nominee," Bolton recently told NBC News.

  Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

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  Evangelical leaders were vital to Trump's 2016 victory, but some are turning against him

  White evangelical Christians were a core part of Trump's winning electoral coalition back in 2016, and he won the support of 80% of the voting bloc in 2020. 

  They were drawn to Trump, despite his scandalous personal life, because of his defense of core conservative causes, and placement of hardline conservative justices on the Supreme Court. 

  But there are signs that some evangelicals are peeling away from Trump, and see Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a stronger 2024 candidate. 

  "It's time to turn the page. America must move on. Walk off the stage with class," tweeted Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of the Family Leader, about Trump in the wake of the midterms. 

  Dr. Everett Piper, the former president of a Christian university, in an op-ed wrote that Trump had "hindered rather than helped the much-anticipated 'red wave'" of Republican victories in the 2022 midterms. 

  The comments appear to have annoyed Trump, who in an interview in January criticized the "disloyalty" of evangelicals who opposed him.

  Scott McIntyre/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

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  Kellyanne Conway was one of Trump's closest advisors, but had some tough advice for him in a recent op-ed

  Kellyanne Conway was one of Trump's most important advisors and media surrogates, defending the president amid a series of scandals throughout his first election campaign and term in the White House. 

  She continues to back Trump as he gears up his 2024 bid, but in a recent New York Times op-ed was critical of her former boss, urging him not to repeat his "disastrous mistakes." 

  "Any repeat by the 2024 Trump campaign of the disastrous mistakes in personnel, strategy and tactics of the 2020 Trump campaign may lead to the same 2020 result," she wrote. 

  "With roughly $1.6 billion to spend and Joe Biden as the opponent, the 2020 election should have been a blowout. Instead, they proved the adage that the fastest way to make a small fortune is to have a very large one and waste most of it."

  SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images