I really wish you would understand the dynamics here. Donald Trump is not popular with people because of anything about him. He's popular because he pisses you people off. All you have to do to take his influence away is ignore him. Nobody of any prominence on the right will be saying a word of defense for Donald Trump the moment people stop trying to throw him in jail for being offputting.
Why do you say that as if it speaks particularly well at your side? Because that heavily implies that Trump supporters knowingly and very willingly put their own country to the torch just to spite people they don't like. I genuinely have more respect for true believe who think an overly corrupt and authoritarian president is what the country needs, instead of people who know its all horribly wrong but insists on taking that course just out of spite.
''Oh hey. This cartoonishly incompetent president bungled a pandemic just as we suspected he would. And my parents might be dead from covid because the cartoon president told them they shouldn't wear a mask, and I'm out of a job but at least the libs are unhappy now!''
Why? For what end do you imagine he wanted violence? Do you really imagine Trump figuring his supporters would go in guns blazing and overthrow the US government, because short of a complete and successful violent coup, there is no method by which violence on January 6th helps him in any way. Why do you imagine him hoping for something that hurts him? That makes no sense for a normal person, it makes exceptionally no sense for someone so utterly self-obsessed.
I'm not quite sure why Trump supporters insist there could have been no gain for doing what he did.
-If the mob would have successfully intimidated Pence to employ powers he didn't have to throw out votes then Trump could claim either victory or a disputed election which might get the supreme court involved. The supreme court he stacked.
-If the mob had intimidated enough people to delay certification then there was enough time for the Trump camp to get up to some devilry. Maybe the chaos would prompt the supreme court to quasi innocently suggest such chaos and um...''uncertainty'' would require their involvement.
Stretches, long shots and doomed to failure as far as odds for success goes perhaps. But this was a president who never had any case to dispute his defeat to begin with. Clinging to long shots was all he had.
And as many people already said it would satisfy his ego, his vanity and his well documented obsession with revenge after imagined slights.
You should forget everything you think about this and start fresh, honestly. Has the GOP been unwilling to condemn that event? Or did they overwhelmingly condemn it from the moment it happened and supported the efforts of the legitimate law enforcement powers against those who perpetrated the crimes? (Hint: the second one)
Didn't the very man caught on camera baricadding the door for fear of his life later go on to claim it was just a rowdy tourist visit? Even Pence, the very target of the mob now tries to pretend it was no big deal. And condemning it is meaningless if its not followed by action. McConnell saying ''Yes Trump is guilty and I condemn it but I refuse to see him punished'' doesn't seem like much of a condemnation to me.