President Trump’s sudden fixation on taking over Greenland is doing something few issues ever do inside the conservative movement: it’s cracking the veneer of discipline.

For a moment, at least.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) thought he had made peace with Donald Trump.

Back in November, Cassidy said that it had been “communicated” to him that the president would remain neutral in his re-election race.

The midterm elections are still on track to follow the familiar historical pattern: a restless electorate, frustrated with the White House, uses the off-year elections to rebuke the president and punish the party in power.

All the macro indicators point in that direction. Presidential approval is weak. Voter enthusiasm favors the opposition. The political environment is clearly tilted against the governing party.

President Trump told Reuters that he’s doing such a good job that “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

The White House later walked it back, insisting he was “simply joking.” But when a sitting president casually floats the idea of canceling elections, it’s not a punchline. It’s unsettling.

The real center of gravity in the Republican Party no longer resides with its elected officials. It has shifted decisively to conservative media.

Today’s GOP politicians do not lead the conversation — they react to it.

What’s striking about the fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration agent is not just that criminal charges now appear unlikely.

It’s how quickly the focus shifted from the shooter to the victim.

For much of the past year, congressional Republicans have marched in near-perfect formation behind Donald Trump.

That alignment is starting to crack if several votes taken yesterday are any indication.

Republicans have decided to make the threat of a third Trump impeachment a major get-out-the-vote talking point for the midterms.

The pitch to Trump’s base is blunt and emotional. If you like Trump, if you think he’s under siege, if you want to protect him from a hostile Democratic Congress, you’d better turn out and vote Republican.