People who don't like Trump claim that, with his attacks on Mitch McConnell and against other disloyal Republicans, he's simply settling scores for no purpose but self-gratification.  People like me, who do like Trump, see a bigger, more important strategy: he's getting rid of the conservative wing of the Democrat party (not a typo) and is positioning the Republican Party to represent a true populist, pro-American conservatism.  Trump made another big move in that direction on Monday, when he told his 75 million supporters to stop sending money to the GOP.

To recap, Trump opened his war against the RINO wing of the Republican Party in mid-February, when he went nuclear on Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, calling him a useless hack.  This was obviously payback for Mitch McConnell's disgraceful attacks against Trump following the impeachment.

Trump wasn't done once he'd had his say about McConnell.  Two weeks later, at CPAC, Trump did two things.  First, he said he had no intention of abandoning the Republican Party.  And, second, he named those nominal Republicans who need to be primaried right out of politics because their allegiance is to the Democrats and their anti-American policies, rather than to America and Americans.  Trump made clear that he's going to restore a pro-American Republican Party.

Trump's next moves in the game were to announce that he was going to campaign against Alaska's Sen. Lisa Murkowski, whose commitment to conservatism is almost entirely illusory, and to have his lawyers send a cease and desist letter to the Republican National Committee (RNC).  In the letter, Trump's lawyers demanded that the RNC stop using Trump's name and likeness in their campaign materials.

Unsurprisingly, the RNC responded that it fully intended to use Trump's name and likeness in its campaign materials.  This means that it intends to promote uniparty RINOs by associating them with a hugely popular Republican president:

In a Monday letter to Trump attorney Alex Cannon, RNC chief counsel J. Justin Riemer said the committee "has every right to refer to public figures as it engages in core, First Amendment-protected political speech" and said "it will continue to do so in pursuit of these common goals."

But he maintained that Trump had also "reaffirmed" to the chair of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, over the weekend "that he approves of the RNC's current use of his name in fundraising and other materials, including for our upcoming donor retreat event at Palm Beach at which we look forward to him participating."

The Gateway Pundit understands what the RNC plan is:

Just think of all the small donors on fixed incomes who will think that they are helping Trump when instead they will be helping monsters like Mitch McConnell or Liz Cheney!

Trump must have anticipated this response — after all, as a public figure, it'll be mighty hard for him to claim that he has sole control over his image and words — so he shot back with a response that must have horrified everyone at the RNC, from the lowliest secretary to Ronna McDaniel herself.  He released an official statement telling the faithful not to donate to the RINOs.  Instead, he says, they should donate directly to his Save America PAC:

Trump with a message and an explicit ask to send him money, and not other Republicans: pic.twitter.com/R62agEjmLP

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) March 9, 2021

Things are about to get interesting, for Trump has openly anointed himself as kingmaker for muscular conservatism in America.

Image: Donald Trump "I'm just in the way" meme.