Donald Trump’s Persistent Grip on the Right

Donald Trump has had a very bad summer. This has given some people hope that the end of the Trumpian captivity of the Republican Party is within sight. I wish I could share their optimism.

It’s certainly true that his post-presidency isn’t going great.

Because he didn’t want to get on the wrong side of the worst elements of his base, he refused to defend the vaccines he once trumpeted as a signature accomplishment of his administration. He’s determined to make his bogus stolen election fable a political litmus test, rendering himself a human wedge issue within the GOP, dividing the party, alienating some Republican voters and mobilizing Democrats.

Denied access to social media and too incompetent to create alternatives, he issues email statements that read like a cross between his old tweets, a Downfall meme video, and a grammatically challenged papal pronunciamento, but they barely move the needle in the media or on Capitol Hill.