How has Trump changed the Republican Party? His criminal trial guest list tells the story.

The Republican Party has changed a lot since Donald J. Trump last spent so much time in Trump Tower.

Imprisoned in New York City four days a week during his criminal trial, Trump is now back in the same 66th-floor penthouse suite where he weathered so many scandals during his 2016 presidential run.

At that time, Trump was the Republican nominee, but he was still an outsider to the party. After the “Access Hollywood” video was released in October 2016 and he was heard bragging about grabbing women’s genitals, he spent the weekend at Trump Tower watching defections. Doubts about his candidacy came from across the spectrum of the Republican Party, including a canceled event and a public rebuke from the man he chose to be his vice president.

What a difference seven and a half years makes.

On Monday, a candidate to be Trump’s next vice president, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, traveled to New York to make a show of solidarity with his party’s presumptive nominee. Vance began his day at Trump Tower and later entered the courtroom the same day that part of the “Access Hollywood” episode was retold and a secret recording was played in which Trump discussed rewards for burying damaging stories.

Vance was joined by Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, along with the Alabama attorney general, the Iowa attorney general and a Republican congresswoman from Staten Island.

On Tuesday, while the prosecution’s main witness, Michael D. Cohen, was expected to be questioned, the Speaker of the House headed to the courthouse in Trump’s motorcade, along with two other politicians whose names were on the vice. – presidential sweepstakes, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran unsuccessfully in the 2024 primary as a pro-Trump alternative.

“We have a lot of great people here to talk to you,” Trump said Tuesday, before entering a courtroom he said he nicknamed “the refrigerator.”

The warm embrace was a sign of how far Trump’s legal troubles are from making him a party pariah. Instead, the trial over hush-hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels is a stage for aspiring politicians to prove their loyalty, the latest litmus test in a party increasingly defined by loyalty to Trump.

“What’s happening inside that courtroom is a threat to American democracy,” Vance declared Monday at a news conference outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, lashing out at some people, including the judge’s daughter, whom Trump was expressly barred from attending. talking about via gag order.

It was a theme that emerged from Trump’s numerous guests: They have been traveling to New York and amplifying the former president’s talking points, attacking those that Trump is prohibited from speaking about.

Other political allies who have gone to court include David McIntosh, the head of the Club for Growth, who committed millions of dollars in spending against Trump in 2023 but has since made efforts to get back into his good graces. And there was Senator Rick Scott of Florida and Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas.

Trump has said at times that he wanted to see a show of support in the streets outside the trial, and a number of aides as well as his son, Eric, attended the trial. A Trump official said the campaign did not invite politicians to the parade, but that allies volunteered on their own.

“They chose to show up,” Trump said as he left the courthouse on Monday. “They see it as a scam.”

Eight years ago, there was strong “Never Trump” pressure within the party to deny Trump’s nomination. This year, there has been little or no serious discussion within the Republican Party about replacing Trump at the top of the ticket, even in the event of a criminal conviction before the party’s summer convention.

Trump hasn’t changed since 2016. The party has changed.

In 2016, Paul D. Ryan was Speaker of the House. He was a painful and publicly reluctant supporter of Trump. Last week, Ryan said he would not vote for Trump this year. “Character is very important to me,” he said.

In 2024, Mike Johnson is the Speaker of the House. He is a satisfied and publicly solicitous endorser of Trump. Last week, Johnson held a news conference at the Capitol to amplify one of Trump’s political obsessions: preventing undocumented immigrants from voting. One of Trump’s former aides, Stephen Miller, was at his side.

Today, to the extent that Trump has Republican critics, they are increasingly former Republicans, offering their comments as frequently on CNN as in the halls of Congress.

Trump has certainly worked to purify the party. He celebrated the defeat of everyone he considers disloyal Republicans, even those who lost their seats to the Democrats.

“I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad, but I feel good about it,” Trump said the day after the 2018 midterm elections, ticking off the names of several Republicans who just lost when Democrats took control of the country. the chamber.

“Mia Love didn’t give me love,” Trump said of former Rep. Mia Love of Utah, who had just been defeated by a Democrat. “And she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia.

In the 2022 midterm elections, he decided to impeach all 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him for their conduct before and during the January 6 Capitol riot. At the end of the election, only two of the 10 remained – and both, not coincidentally, had survived in states where the top two finishers advanced to the general election, rather than in a closed Republican primary.

After visiting the courtroom on Monday, Vance, who won the 2022 Senate primary after Trump endorsed him, said in an X post that “I am now convinced that the primary purpose of this trial is psychological torture.” for Mr. Trump.

The former president, who could be seen carrying news clippings of comments made about the trial as he left, appeared to appreciate the words of support from those who supported him. But he had another idea of ​​how they could help him.

“We have a lot of them who want to come,” Trump said Monday. “I say we stand back and pass lots of laws to stop things like this.”

Maggie Haberman contributed reports.