Onumba.com —- It appears some in the GOP are now coming to grips with the monster they created: former President Donald J. Trump.
Denial is not just a river in Egypt, it is also a mental block that plagued the Republican party for years not appreciating their own magnum opus in a beauty like Trump.
In the beginning, it was all smiles, guffaw and fraternal hobnobbing; it was all warm and fuzzy in the Trump MAGA universe. But the fun is all over. These Republicans now find themselves in a quagmire toiling to fend off the deep sea Piranha they masterfully nurtured to size. There’s a fitting parlance for it: If you ride a tiger long enough, eventually you will be eaten by that tiger.
It goes without saying, exasperated members of the GOP are increasingly keeping opprobrious Trump at bay.
But while a growing phalanx of GOP members are grumbling, mumbling and stewing that cantankerous Trump is ravaging their party, eviscerating their political careers and shoving some into abrupt and early retirement, they are still wallowing in never-ending namby-pambyism lacking the kind of spine needed to straight up call out the former president. Some progress has been made, though. Not only are Republicans increasingly singing from the same hymn of frustration having realized Trump has no plans to disengage from active politics anytime soon, but they are also clandestinely taking baby steps to gnaw at his entrenched influence, and ultimately torpedo his repudiated zeitgeist being the future of the party.
A trifecta of Republican mugwumps led by Liz Chaney, Adam Kinzinger and Mitt Romney still shepherd a tiny bevy of brazen conservatives pointing finger straight at Trump for his medley of shenanigans. On the other side of that coin resides a shameless squad of diehard sycophants led by Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Ambassador Nikki Haley. They form a trio of GOP bootlicking milquetoasts —– cowards with no moral core swooning after cheap political chits from master Trump.
Easily, very easily, Liz Chaney packs more guts in her little pinky than sorry-ass, pathetic Rubio, Haley and Cruz have in their combined torso.
Trump’s petulant, lunatic, and bumbling temperament was abundantly clear from the beginning. He never really camouflaged his harsh persona in glib and genteel cloak. If anything, he embellished in his uncouth and bellicose character, like the time of his open cockalorum about standing “in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not “lose any voters.” 
So, it was crystal clear that Trump was a one-man wrecking ball who wasted no time unleashing staggering tyranny on his party, firing off crushing broadsides aimed at anyone who disagreed with him; sweepingly recontouring the GOP into a servile party in his querulous and mean-spirited image; it was clear he was veering the party away from mainstay traditional GOP postures while sowing the seeds of Trumpian toxicity; and it was clear that as president, he behaved frighteningly unpresidential and cacophonously unhinged. Oh, let’s not forget the mind-blowing volume of lies Trump told as his scandalous presidency teetered along the boulevard of fecklessness and ineptitude.
All Republicans bore witness to all of that, but only a handful (and that’s not a hyperbole) showed enough courage to check his sprawling excesses. Rather, they molly-cuddled him, looked the other way in the face of a symphony of nonsense and a cascade of presidential blunders, childishness and foolishness. They uncomplainingly, at least not publicly, enabled him to indulge in his draconian ways. They funneled oxygen to his toddler temper tantrums and stroked his gossamer ego ——- pretty much condoned and normalized his bizarre and jaw-dropping indulgences, largely for fear of being targeted by his scorching vitriols. The apoplectic former president is fitted with a short fuse, and would publicly unload his wrath on detractors.
Recently, Trump landed on a roster of the worst twenty nine presidents in U.S. history. No surprises there. Having presided over a turbulent, discombobulated administration wrought with a smorgasbord of drama, scandals and fiddledeedees—— an administration as ubiquitously chaotic, bodacious, and cantankerous as his, a cool spot on that ignoble roster was a shoo-in, for several reasons. The shellacking in the 2020 elections against Biden placed him on a roster of presidential one-termers. Trump’s political foes in both parties celebrated and high-fived at his defeat, even touted the kibosh of Trump and MAGA.
Well —— not so fast.
After refusing to concede defeat with grace and humility, two traits totally alien to him, Trump embarked on a crazy crusade of lies and deceit to convince the American people that the election was “stolen” from him. It wasn’t. Dude was simply a spectacular sore loser who stoked a violent and deadly insurrection on Jan. 6 to thwart a peaceful transfer of presidential powers.
No U.S. president has been impeached twice, a stunning feat Trump pulled off in just four years. That alone punts him into a lonesome stratum of his own.
As president, assiduity was never Trump’s strong suit. The real-estate mogul-turned politician was stunningly and dangerously purblind. Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter who is author of The Art of the Deal had an intimate knowledge of that, noting that Trump had the attention span of a “kindergartner,” with “a staggering level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.” His Attorney-General William Barr piled on his former boss’ barrenness, saying that Trump “never really had a good idea of, you know, the role of the Department of Justice [and] to some extent, you know, the president’s role.” Let all that sink in.
In short, the former president was an intellectual dilettante and a political greenhorn who displayed a depth of material emptiness that left critics and allies alike aghast and scratching their head. Trump hurled childish insults almost on a daily basis in skirmishes against just about everyone. That, plus his narcissistic nature and lack of presidential decorum raised serious questions over his fitness for the job. 
All of that and more has now converged into an epic conundrum for Republicans, now wondering aloud: Why continue to hinge the future of the GOP on an aging rapscallion with a debauched past, weakening clout and still politically radioactive?
Well, it appears more and more GOP leaders are beginning to pour ice water on Trumpian excesses by increasingly saying ‘no’ to his bs. Still, all their mumbling and grumbling are taking place behind closed doors, not public ——– not yet. Yeah, taking Trump on is a herculean, perhaps, even a sisyphean task. For now, these knackered and frustrated Republicans are still tiptoeing in trepidation not to anger the former president, who not only still enjoys vast fealty among the GOP hoipolloi, but also wields a potent weapon in his ability to groom primary opponents against lawmakers and others who are not allies.
Nonetheless, it appears Pence has had enough. The former Vice President recently swung at Trump, a rarity of nostalgic proportion about a Twisted Sister croon, “We’re not gonna take it,” anymore. It probably took a boatload of courage, but Pence pulled it off, finally taking it to Trump —– straight up, without twisting himself into a pretzel as has become the norm for trembling Republicans. That was refreshing, to say the least. Pence flexed his backbone after Trump recently said that he (Pence) could have overturned the results of the 2020 election. The former VP struck back in a speech before the Federalist Society in Florida, saying, “President Trump is wrong.”
“I had no right to overturn the election.”
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has had it up to his eyeballs with Trump too. Although the senator from Kentucky is not all the way public with his deepening disgust with Trump, he is operating behind the scene to deflate the former president’s clout en-route to weakening his blustering swagger. Recently, McConnell huddled up with Senator Susan Collins from Maine to discuss plan to encourage anti-Trump candidates to run for offices against the former president’s handpicked minions.
“No one should be afraid of President Trump, period,” Collins told The New York Times.
The former president, as is customary, clapped back, calling Collins “absolutely atrocious.”
To sum up, Pence, McConnell and Collins are emerging as the vanguard of a recalcitrant push to wrestle the Grand Old Party out of the stiffened claws of a disgraced former president who is being investigated on a miscellany of fronts.
Will they succeed? That remains to be seen.
