I spoke to Molly Ball for her Wall Street Journal piece published in the aftermath of Trump’s victory.

“I think we’ve learned this country has an appetite for what [Trump] represents,” said Liam Donovan, a GOP lobbyist. “A lot of Democrats convinced themselves that people don’t want it, that they were exhausted, that they wanted to turn the page. It’s not that they didn’t warn people or say ‘fascist’ loud enough,” he said. “People understood what they were getting and decided they wanted more of that and it was worth the risk.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Dave Weigel for his Semafor piece on the nearly $5 trillion fiscal elephant in the room.

Why aren’t the presidential candidates talking about it more? Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist not working for either presidential campaign, said that the facts around the 2017 law create some uncomfortable messaging issues for both of them.

“On the GOP side, you can warn of the coming tax hikes — but then you’d have to remind people why this exists,” he said, referring to how Republicans put sunsets on the individual tax cuts while making corporate tax cuts permanent in order to pass the bill. “On the Dem side, you could lean into that and say, we told you this is bad! But they don’t want to remind people they’re on board with the $5 trillion in Biden raisers.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Bloomberg‘s Josh Green for a cover story around his interview with Businessweek.

But Trump is also aware that whatever “love” the CEOs might have expressed was ultimately driven by self-interest: They can read election polls like everyone else. “Whoever’s leading gets all the support they want,” he says. “I could have the personality of a shrimp, and everybody would come.”

This wasn’t always the case. With Trump disgraced and seemingly finished in politics after his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the Republican business community was part of a coalition eager to anoint a new standard-bearer for the party. It began lavishing money and attention on a rising generation of business-friendly politicians, led by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who has also served as co-CEO of the investment firm Carlyle Group Inc. But in 2024, DeSantis’ presidential campaign collapsed, Haley’s petered out, and Youngkin’s never took place. Business leaders were shocked and crestfallen as Trump cruised to the nomination.

“Everyone read this wrong,” says Liam Donovan, a Republican business lobbyist. “There was a core assumption that Trump was finished. But DeSantis was never going to be the guy, nor was Haley. People saw an opportunity to turn the page, tried to make it happen, and it didn’t happen. The base wanted Trump.

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Michael Kruse for his POLITICO Magazine piece on former President Trump’s gift for image-making in light of the iconic photos from this weekend’s attempt on his life.

“Visuals matter more than words,” former House speaker and Trump ally Newt Gingrich wrote in his book called Understanding Trump in 2017. “How you look is more important than how you sound,” Stone told me in 2018. “He has,” Republican strategist Liam Donovan said to me on Sunday, “a handful of instincts and impulses that have served him well, but the primacy of aesthetics and image-making really is the core.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Jeff Stein for his Washington Post piece on the decision of high profile progressives to bail out Joe Biden when his candidacy was on the ropes.

Liam Donovan, a GOP strategist, said the endorsements from Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez reflect the reality that any replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket would be less likely to cater to the left than Biden, who has stocked his administration with former staffers to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

“The support reflects the fact that Biden has tacked strongly to the left since winning the 2020 primary as an amiable centrist, and any non-Biden alternative is apt to be less aligned with the progressive agenda,” Donovan said.

But while “AOC and company boosting Biden at a perilous moment may help him secure the nomination,” Donovan added, “it doesn’t help him claw back in the Rust Belt states that will decide this election.”

Read the full piece here.