Idrees Kahloon: “The reality that Donald Trump’s presidency will end in January 2029 is already making Republicans restless. Normally, Trump angers, exhausts, and eventually prevails over elected Republicans—not vice versa. Just this week, though, rebellious Republicans forced the release of the so-called Epstein files in defiance of Trump, who had spent months trying to suppress them before abruptly reversing course.”

“Plenty of other cracks are showing too: Staunch allies of the president are mouthing critiques that would have been unfathomable a year ago. These disputes are the prelude to an ugly battle over the post-Trump Republican Party.”

Washington Post: “Greene’s split with Trump, which unfolded over issues ranging from foreign workers to the push to release government files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is testing the president’s command of the ‘America First’ movement he mobilized.”

“Trump recently called Greene a ‘traitor,’ withdrew his endorsement of her reelection and encouraged a primary challenge in 2026. But many Republican leaders and voters in Greene’s deep-red district say they are sticking with her, boosting her bid to carve out a populist MAGA brand independent of the president.”

Michelle Goldberg: “The last wretched decade shows that reports of a MAGA crackup ought to be viewed somewhat skeptically. There have, after all, been many moments when Trump seemed to be losing his grip on the right, only for his hold to grow stronger.”

“But a few things are different now. In his first term, Trump inherited a good economy from Barack Obama, and the establishment Republicans who surrounded him prevented him from tanking it with major trade wars or mass deportations. Much of Trump’s base distrusted these figures, seeing them as part of a deep state cabal trying to thwart his populist agenda. But they shielded the country from at least part of the price of Trump’s erraticism.”

“This time, however, Trump came into office with a much shakier economy, and, unrestrained by Washington technocrats, has proceeded to make it worse, putting the country in a sour mood.”

Tim Carney: “Here’s one measure of the partisan shift in the Trump era: In 2016, Republicans controlled 31 governorships and 68 legislative chambers. Come January, the GOP will control only 26 governorships and 57 legislative chambers (more than a 15% reduction on both scores).”

“In the Trump era, here’s the rule: Elections in which Trump is on the ballot, the GOP does fine. In elections in which he is not, the GOP does poorly…”

“This is a big problem for Republicans because Trump will never be on a ballot nationwide again. It’s very possible that after Trump is gone, Republicans will experience their darkest hour and lowest point since the New Deal.”

Ali Breland: “Republicans are so at odds about how to handle Fuentes’s encroachment into their ranks that many commentators have likened their infighting to a civil war and posed it as a battle for the soul of the conservative movement. The critics of the Groypers themselves tend to downplay the scale of the conflict. They have suggested that the deeply bigoted factions of the right are a vocal but tiny minority that can be excised.”

Paul Krugman: “Like almost all progressives, I was infuriated and disheartened by Senate Democrats’ cave on the shutdown Sunday. The party won stunning election victories Tuesday — and its leaders responded with yet another preemptive surrender? (Chuck Schumer may have voted no, but he didn’t manage, and may not even have tried, to prevent defections.)”

“Yet while the immediate politics displayed Democratic tactical weakness, the larger story highlighted a different kind of weakness on the part of Donald Trump and MAGA as a whole — namely, their innate cruelty. They have a visceral dislike for policies that do anything to help the less fortunate, and can’t even bring themselves to be cynical, to help Americans temporarily while they consolidate power.”

“Sometimes, it’s good to touch the hot stove.”

— A Trump adviser, quoted by Axios, arguing that Republicans across the board need to wake up to political reality.

Wired: “Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist known for his deeply antisemitic, racist, and misogynist worldview, just might be tearing the Republican party apart.”

“The schism was triggered last Tuesday when former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released an in-depth interview with Fuentes, the leader of the so-called America First movement who has denied the Holocaust, praised Hitler, and shared deeply misogynistic views.”

Washington Post: “In 2019, a small group of right-wing donors rented a resort outside the 100-person town of Rockbridge, Ohio, for a summit to secure the future of the MAGA movement. They aimed to turn a singular candidate — President Donald Trump — into an enduring political coalition, with a pipeline of voters, donors and candidates that would cement a radical transformation of the GOP.”

“Convened by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel and JD Vance, then an investor who had written a best-selling memoir, the meeting included hedge fund heiress Rebekah Mercer, then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson and economist Oren Cass.”

“Republican lawmakers and influencers continued on Monday to distance themselves from Tucker Carlson after his sympathetic interview with the prominent white supremacist Nick Fuentes, putting on display a widening split on the right about how to address antisemitism within their party,” the New York Times reports.

“The fallout included at least one resignation, as a key aide to the head of a prominent right-wing think tank stepped down after backing his boss’s vigorous defense of Mr. Carlson.”

“As Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) was laying into Tucker Carlson during a speech to fellow Jewish Republicans on Saturday, a group of students stood in front of the stage holding signs that read ‘TUCKER IS NOT MAGA.'” Punchbowl News reports.

“With the crowd cheering him on at the annual Republican Jewish Coalition summit, Fine called Carlson ‘the most dangerous antisemite in America’ and accused him of leading a ‘modern-day Hitler Youth.'”

“Fine is seen as a provocateur on Capitol Hill, often using incendiary rhetoric on a range of topics, including Gaza. But Fine was channeling the sentiments of an overwhelming majority of Hill Republicans after the Heritage Foundation stood by Carlson following his friendly interview with white nationalist and antisemite Nick Fuentes.”

“The movement tore across the country with an energy new to American politics — its activists shouting at lawmakers and holding frenzied rallies to demand balanced budgets, an end to deficit spending, sharp tax cuts, fealty to the Constitution and a reined-in presidency,” the Washington Post reports.

“This was the tea party movement, which punctuated its arrival 15 years ago with the election of 2010, a moment that seemed poised to rewrite the rules of American politics. Yet just a few years later, the Republican Party was captured by the MAGA movement and President Donald Trump, whose agenda, to some tea party pioneers, is the opposite of theirs and which dominates the party today.”