Trump Is Slowly Losing His Stranglehold on Republicans

Edward Luce: “This is not an obituary of Donald Trump. He still has a plausible shot at becoming the first ex-president to be re-elected since Grover Cleveland in 1892. But politics is about momentum — and the energy behind Trump is dissipating. The bad news for Trump’s detractors is that his ‘MAGA’ base is not fading. The Kraken lives on. It just no longer shows such deference to the man in Mar-a-Lago.”

“Trump’s handicap is that he is obsessed with one issue — that he was cheated by Joe Biden of his rightful election victory in 2020. Most Republican voters share in that belief, which is a litmus test for candidates. Yet the stolen election myth is their politics’ starting point, not its be-all and end-all. By confining himself to rigged elections, Trump is forgetting Maga’s animating spirit, which is hatred of America’s cultural elites.”

“When Trump’s monomania backfires, it leaves him looking weak.”