“As President Trump basks in his success in the Middle East, hairline fractures within his Republican base are cropping up on a smattering of domestic issues,” Axios reports.

“Republicans have been in near-lockstep with Trump in his second term. So the small pockets of resistance — on the National Guard deployments, free speech, the federal shutdown and more — signal concerns within the GOP as the 2026 midterms come into sight.”

“From cabinet secretaries to state legislators, many women in today’s GOP have one thing in common: They got their start in public life by winning pageants,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain and head of the UN World Food Program, suffered a mild stroke this week and is said to be recovering “well,” the AP reports.

Jamelle Bouie: “Here, I will say that this effort to use the military against American citizens — an effort backed, it seems, by almost the entire Republican Party — makes a mockery of the longstanding conservative claim that theirs is a movement of small government and states’ rights.”

“Trump’s push to invade cities using the National Guard is as aggressive a use of federal power as one can imagine.”

Paul Krugman: “Nixon, who was a piker by comparison to Donald Trump, was repudiated by his own party. Not only is Donald Trump a wannabe dictator, surely the worst person on multiple dimensions ever to occupy the White House, but he made his intentions clear in the January 6th insurrection and his promises of retribution if re-elected.”

“But unlike Nixon, Trump is backed by a Republican party that has become so extreme, so unwilling to acknowledge that opposition is even legitimate that none of his actions matter. Today’s Republicans show no hesitation whatsoever in adopting the Führerprinzip, the ‘leader principle’, in which Trump’s diktats override all written law and democratic norms.”

“Is calling the modern GOP an extremist party just my subjective assessment? No, it’s an assertion backed by solid evidence.”

“President Trump and MAGA spent years lampooning censorship, discrimination against conservatives, and progressive ‘cancel culture,’” Axios reports.

“Now in power — and riding an outpouring of grief and fury over Charlie Kirk’s tragic killing — they’re enforcing speech codes to punish ideological opponents.”

Washington Post: JD Vance vows retribution on liberal institutions after Charlie Kirk killing.

Wall Street Journal: “A master of 21st century mass media, Kirk accomplished what Republicans had failed to do for decades: break through with younger generations. Regardless of whether they supported him or not, it was nearly impossible for college students to open social media without being served a video of Kirk.”

“For a generation of young conservatives, he inspired them to proudly tout their views, including opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Countless others said his views were discriminatory and offensive. Love him or hate him, Kirk was ubiquitous.”

“Charlie Kirk’s assassination has unleashed an outpouring of rage across the MAGA universe, with many leaders feeling his death is evidence the movement is under attack from leftist forces,” Axios reports.

“At a moment of extreme volatility in American politics, many MAGA leaders are now calling for retribution — including the criminalization of the Democratic Party.”

Along those lines, The Federalist writes that “it is time to designate the Democrat Party a domestic terrorist organization.”

Axios: “Trump has spent his first eight months smashing norms — and crossing legal lines — in his dizzying pursuit of mass deportations, crime crackdowns, government purges and more.”

“But in MAGA’s maximalist mindset, it’s not enough: The base sees a shrinking window for its revolution, with Trump term-limited and potential midterm losses looming next year.”

“On every political front, the movement is pressing for more — now.”

Yair Rosenberg: “Why does a potent portion of the American right seek to rehabilitate Hitler? The Nazi apologetics are partly an attention-seeking attempt at provocation—an effort to signal iconoclasm by transgressing one of society’s few remaining taboos.”

“But there is more to the story than that. Carlson and his fellow travelers on the far right correctly identify the Second World War as a pivot point in America’s understanding of itself and its attitude toward its Jewish citizens. The country learned hard lessons from the Nazi Holocaust about the catastrophic consequences of conspiratorial prejudice. Today, a growing constituency on the right wants the nation to unlearn them.”

Karen Tumulty: “It used to be pretty easy to name a handful of principles that defined and united American conservatives: lower taxes, unfettered trade, smaller government and keeping that government’s hand out of private businesses.”

“In ways big and small, President Donald Trump has scrambled those fundamental propositions.”

“Trump’s domination of the Republican Party has allowed him leeway for a host of apostasies. He’s setting the stage, however, for what could be an epic battle over conservatism’s direction once he is off the scene. Will this turn out to be a temporary phase and a reflection of one man’s predilections, or a permanent redirection of the movement?”

“Support for labor unions among Republicans declined this year, finds a Gallup survey out Thursday morning,” Axios reports.

“The party traditionally opposed organized labor, but in recent years had been moving in a different direction — with the Trump campaign actively courting the union vote last year.”

“The latest numbers mark a return to form.”

David Frum: “Military patrols in U.S. cities. Police raids on homes of government critics. Mass detentions without due process. Government taking control of private companies. Supply shortages and price increases due to government attacks on free commercial exchange. The government imposing huge fines on media corporations for First Amendment protected speech that displeased the president. Enormous tax increases imposed on Americans without any vote by Congress. Violent convicted criminals released onto the streets because they directed their violence against persons the president targeted as his personal enemies.”

“And all of it done by — and enthusiastically supported by — people who use the language of liberty to justify acts of arbitrary power and economic predation.”