The Republicans Are Bolting From Trump

A president who demanded personal loyalty will eventually discover that public service asks for something sturdier, and it is encouraging to see Republicans make that distinction. Let me be clear, folks may have sound reasons to break with Trump now, but the test is whether they will defend democratic norms consistently, even when doing so costs them politically.

Kamala Harris warned us exactly what a second Trump term would look like, and now even his own Republicans are bolting. MAGATs built this loyalty cult and are shocked it collapses when Trump stops being useful. The world would be better off if he were impeached already.

"Senator, I want to be clear: I like loyalty. I like it very much. I like a man who has spent several productive years insisting that he alone could fix it, that anyone who questioned him was a traitor, that loyalty was a sacred one-way street, while simultaneously abandoning every ally the moment they became inconvenient. I like beer."

"I have always been loyal to the president, Maury, ALWAYS," says the senator, sweating through the stage lights. "The lie detector determined that was a LIE." THE REPUBLICANS ARE BOLTING, and the audience is on its feet. "You are NOT the father of this presidency!" Gas prices, Hormuz, a $300 billion Iran check, and NOW they find their spines, right when the polls come back. "Security, get these Senators off my stage." A man demands loyalty from a whole party for years, and the moment he stops being useful, they can't sprint for the exits fast enough. That's not principle, that's a guest running out before the envelope opens.