Donald Trump has left Washington, but the shadow of the former president looms large over an increasingly conflicted party.
Donald Trump is gone from Washington, metaphorically dragged kicking and screaming from a job he swears he didn’t really lose, but gone nonetheless – uncharacteristically quiet as he ponders his future from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
But the former president is still a powerful force in GOP politics, dividing the party as it struggles to use its limited minority muscle in Washington and haunting Republican candidates who still don’t know how strong Trump – or Trumpism – will be in future elections.
The division will come to a head Wednesday as Republican House members decide what to do with colleagues representing the two sides of the GOP. House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy of California is under pressure to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from her committee posts because of wild conspiracy theories Greene has espoused and comments she has retweeted calling for violence against her Democratic colleagues. McCarthy met with Greene on Tuesday night, jogging away from reporters who asked him how it went. Continue reading.