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The Republican Party is at war with itself as it charts its post-Trump future
A cold war is underway within the Republican Party as its members begin to navigate how former President Donald Trump and his legacy fit into the GOP's future.
Politics
A cold war is underway within the Republican Party as its members begin to navigate how former President Donald Trump and his legacy fit into the GOP's future.
Some in congressional leadership have signaled their desire to move the party beyond Trump by impeaching and convicting him. Allies of the former President, on the other hand, are proclaiming their loyalty to him in conservative media and in state and local party organizations. Still other Republicans remain fearful of the power Trump may yet wield in GOP primaries or see electoral possibilities in embracing a version of his populist-conservative approach.
The result is a Republican Party in a fight with itself over who will determine its path forward -- and, more crucially, who should be kept from the levers of power in the GOP. For the moment, party unity is giving way to recriminations, a culmination of the longstanding dispute between the party's grassroots and its leadership class that was mostly put on hold during Trump's presidency, when few Republicans dared to cross him.
"Republicans are entering the wilderness and looking desperately to point blame," said Erick Erickson, the conservative commentator and radio host. "They're going to have to make room for each other or let the Democrats run over them in the midterms."
Disunity could present a more existential threat to Republicans. In his final days in the White House, Trump raised the idea of starting a new political party, a senior Trump adviser told CNN. While others around him dismissed this scheme to launch a "patriot party" as unserious, the potential of a split among right-of-center voters looms for Republicans.