Jonathan Last: “At any point during the last 4 years, Republican elites could have stopped Trump and prevented him from running for president again. But doing so would have been painful. It would have cost some—perhaps even many—of these elite Republicans their jobs and their rank. It would have temporarily ruptured the GOP. It would have certainly cost them the 2020 election and might have cost them the 2024 election, too.”
“But Donald Trump understands that power emanates from the balance of pain… Getting rid of Trump would be vastly more painful for the Republicans who did so than it would be for Trump. Meaning that Trump held all of the power.”
“Which is why Republican elites have been forced into this pattern where they defend Trump from existential attacks while hoping that the attacks succeed. Where they say that they wish they could remove Trump today, but they can’t. Tomorrow would be better. And when tomorrow comes and Trump is still there, they have to defend him again. While—again—hoping that the other side can do the work for them.”
