Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
- Trump has created a Republican Party that struggles mightily when he's not on the ballot.
- At the same time, the former president's unpopularity can make him radioactive to once-loyal GOP voters.
- It's unclear how the Republican Party will chart its future out of this current trap.
The Republican Party is in disarray.
Former President Donald Trump has created a solution where he alone can fix it. The catch-22 is that Trump is also the problem. And when it comes to his advantages, he can't be on the ballot forever.
For now, the GOP looks increasingly like a regional party that struggles to do the bare minimum of governing while pushing policies that make voters recoil.