Republicans edge toward a breaking point on Trump

Donald Trump’s world is on fire, but not according to him. He believes he lives in a universe where he is lord and savior. “If I weren’t president, the world would be torn to pieces,” he told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on Tuesday.

If you believe otherwise, you’re not alone. Many believe that Trump has jumped the shark and is beyond delusional. In two Truth Social posts in successive weeks, Trump threatened to destroy the entire Iranian civilization while claiming to be the president of peace. Then he compared himself to Jesus and got into a fight with the pope.

Whoever had “Trump threatens a WWE Pope Leo smackdown” on their bingo card is the winner. The rest of us are still trying to figure out how Trump can claim the Strait of Hormuz is open, or can be easily opened, or can easily be opened with the help of our allies, or isn’t open but we don’t care, or will magically open, or Iran has closed it and we’ve blockaded it.

On Wednesday he posted on Truth Social that “China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also – And the World. This situation will never happen again.”

But CENTCOM and White House staff later refuted the president’s post, saying the American blockade is still in place. This is noteworthy because, for the first time, the military and people inside Trump’s administration publicly contradicted him, though they tried to soft pedal their pushback. 

They join a growing number of people who have expressed concern about Trump’s ability to grasp the facts. Those who have called the president’s sanity into question have multiplied. At the same time, Democrats who have so far avoided talk of a third impeachment are now openly doing so. They previously feared political backlash, but the president’s threat to obliterate “a whole civilization” if Iran did not cave to his demands opened the floodgates. And some Republicans are backing them up — well, maybe. 

“He’s lost some key support,” a member of Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office told me. “I couldn’t say that last week as easily as I say it today, and it will probably get worse by next week.”

Marc Racicot, the former Republican National Committee chairman, Army JAG officer and Montana governor, called the administration a “lawless regime,” telling me, “If there should be any regime change, it ought to be in America.”

Racicot’s assessment is no surprise. He endorsed Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 election, which led to his censure three years later by the Montana Republican Party, along with the notice that they no longer considered him a Republican.

Covering this chaos is taking a toll on everyone — especially members of the press. “We are not in a simulation,” a veteran White House reporter told me. “We’re in a f**king MEME that changes by the hour.”

According to my sources, some Republicans in Congress believe they are targeted for retribution by Trump, based on their personal contact with him and his social media attacks on MAGA influencers. This is ironic when you consider that the sticking point to an impeachment and conviction are congressional Republicans — that particular brand of politician who remains privately brave and publicly cowardly. “They have not the courage nor the insight nor the willingness to stand up and do the right thing for the right reasons,” Racicot said. But a former member of Trump’s staff said that is changing. Why? “The Boss is driving them there.” 

Trump’s approval ratings are making him less attractive than a rabid skunk, and some supporters say that’s causing some Republicans to back away from him in self-interest following his ongoing attacks on Pope Leo XIV and an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself as Jesus that he posted on Truth Social. 

On Sunday night Trump went after the pope in a lengthy Truth Social post that accused the pontiff of being “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”

“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” he wrote. “I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do.”

Forget for a moment that Trump wasn’t elected in a landslide, the pope has nothing to do with America’s foreign policy and he never said he wanted Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Trump just doesn’t like people disagreeing with him — especially “someone younger than him from Chicago,” as my White House source explained. 

Trump further muddied the water Monday morning with an artificial intelligence-generated image posted on his Truth Social platform. The meme depicted Trump in a white robe and red tunic cradling a ball of light while he laid hands on a man that looked suspiciously like Jon Stewart. Angels, or maybe the Avengers sailed around his head next to a soaring F-15 Strike Eagle. A woman sat nearby with her hands folded as if in prayer. Trump claimed the image portrayed him as a doctor. 

He deleted the meme after religious groups reminded him of Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” His posting was especially insulting to conservative Catholics. “We are a little bit beside ourselves,” said John Yep, the CEO of Catholics for Catholics, a nonprofit group that has hosted faith events at Mar-a-Lago.

On Monday, Thune said “I would leave the church alone.” Other GOP senators, including Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Steve Daines of Montana, called Trump’s attacks on the pope inappropriate. While Daines is part of the state GOP that disowned Racicot, he and other critical Republicans are edging toward sounding more like Racicot every day.  

“He’s gone so far as to try and intimidate the pope, for God’s sake,” Racicot said. “This guy has no respect for any part of the Constitution. He’s the one who said he didn’t know if he had a duty to defend the Constitution because he wasn’t a lawyer. He’s incompetent in terms of managing the government of the United States.” 

If a vote could be taken by secret ballot today, many Republicans I’ve spoken with say Trump would likely be impeached, convicted and removed from office. And after this week, there is a growing possibility it could happen in full daylight with a roll call vote in the Senate. “I wouldn’t bet on it,” a member of Thune’s office said. “But let’s see what happens tomorrow.” 

---

Want more sharp takes on politics? Sign up for our free newsletter, Standing Room Only, written by Amanda Marcotte, now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

---

The best bet for this scenario still remains after the midterm election.

During the first Trump administration, former White House communications director Bill Shine told me and Roll Call’s John Bennett there was “no strategy” in the White House; they were always in crisis mode. Trump came in with a strategy in his second administration based on the Supreme Court ruling that gave him unlimited immunity. But things have fallen apart so thoroughly that with slightly more than 1,000 days left in his term, the president appears more out of control than he ever appeared at any time during his first administration. “And that is frightening to consider,” a former White House staffer admitted to me.

What’s worse? JD Vance is waiting in the wings. Not only did the vice president, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, also refuse to apologize to the pope after Trump’s dustup with the pontiff, but Vance decided to lecture him as well. “Stick to matters of morality,” he said. 

“What the hell does the vice president think the pope was talking about?” my White House source asked. “He was talking about morality issues.”

With Vance clearly following Trump’s lead — wherever it takes us — invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office seems as delusional as the president’s belief in himself. To do so would require the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet declaring Trump was unable to discharge his duties, at which point Vance would become acting president. Trump could then contest the decision, which would allow him to resume the presidency unless the vice president and Cabinet object within four days. Congress would be left to decide Trump’s fate within 21 days; his removal would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers to permanently remove him.

With that said, many still consider it to be an easier route than Impeachment. “The 25th is fast and involves fewer people from a convenience perspective and speed perspective,” Racicot said, “but it has to start inside. And frankly, there’s been no indication to me that I see that indicates there’s any effort to try and even contemplate that. And what do you get in the event that you succeed? JD Vance.”

Either way, Republicans feel trapped in a corner by a delusional president they happily supported and a horrible vice president they don’t respect. 

“I don’t think it’s hysterical rhetoric to say that the country is on the verge of demise. It is being torn apart and the glue that holds us together is becoming brittle,” Racicot said.

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis says Trump has other problems. The North Carolina senator, who until the start of the president’s second term was largely seen as a Trump loyalist, said he won’t vote for Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair, until the president drops an investigation into Powell. Tillis said he doesn’t want to reward Trump’s “bad behavior,” and then he pushed it a bit further by saying he doesn’t see any obvious goals in the fight with Iran. “I’m not quite clear what the strategic objectives are,” he said, explaining “it’s going to be difficult to get my support” to continue the conflict.

As for Trump’s attacks on the pope, Tillis said apologies are “underused” by politicians and that the president should apologize to the pontiff and move on. 

Which brings us back to Karl’s ABC interview with Trump. When the president said the world would be “torn to pieces” if he weren’t around, Karl should have asked, “Are you delusional?” I asked Trump that question in the Brady Briefing room after he lost the 2020 election and refused to concede to Biden. He stormed off without answering me.

Karl had the perfect opportunity — a one-on-one interview. I would have saved the question for last, but I still would have asked it.

We all should. It’s becoming clear that at least some Republicans are beginning to see it that way too, as are members of the administration, but I’m still skeptical they’ll do anything about it. Last week we saw several of Trump’s MAGA media megaphones abandon him on the issue of Iran. This week we saw Republicans, the military and his own staff in three different instances do the same over the issue of the pope.

Where will we be next week? Several Republican and Democratic congressional staffers I spoke with  tell me their telephone calls from constituents demanding Congress take action against Trump are becoming more frequent.

Trump’s world is on fire, but as Shine told me during the first administration, the president likes to fly by the seat of his pants through the problems of his own making. 

For the first time it looks like that strategy is backfiring and that by threatening genocide and picking a fight with the pope Trump has created a fire which may consume him.

The post Republicans edge toward a breaking point on Trump appeared first on Salon.com.