Amanda Marcotte, Salon: Republicans are "tip-toe-ing around" Trump, "waiting for him to either leave or die"

Republicans are quiet quitting on Trump
The White House chief of staff says the president has “an alcoholic’s personality”
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer

https://www.salon.com/2025/12/17/republicans-are-quiet-quitting-on-trump/

Since the publication of both articles (Susie Wiles, Vanity Fair, and Andrew Eggar, The Bulwark, on RNC Chair Joe Gruters), Wiles and Gruters have gone on the offensive, trying to convince Trump that they never said the stuff they clearly said. Wiles attacked the Vanity Fair profile as a “disingenuously framed hit piece” and claimed there was some “context” missing around her revelations. People who actually read the two-part article — which she knows won’t include either Trump or his sycophants — know this isn’t true. Her comments about the president’s lack of impulse control are given plenty of context and make perfect sense, especially in light of his lies about Reiner’s death. Meanwhile, the RNC Research X account has gone ham on Egger, repeatedly tweeting curse words and calling him names like “scumbag” and worse while falsely accusing him of making up the story. (Egger has the interview recording.)

The dilemma of Wiles and Gruters is a microcosm of the larger paradox facing the GOP. On one hand, Republicans want to plan for a post-Trump future, especially since they don’t know if that will start three years or three days from now. That means trying to signal to political insiders that they aren’t down with Trump’s delusions — that they are instead sane people who are acceptable to hire for plum positions when the old man is gone. This accounts for the interviews in which they position themselves as sane people, unlike their boss.

On the other hand, Trump is still around. Even in his increasingly addled state, sometimes news that his people are talking smack gets back to him — especially since there are other power players in the White House who might enjoy showing such stories to Trump, if it means gaining favor while taking their competitors down a notch.

This situation is causing a kind of paralysis throughout the party. Despite Mike Johnson’s continuous proclamations of busyness, the House has barely been functioning. Johnson has shut it down for long periods and has not really held many votes. The main result of rendering Congress into a do-nothing body has been to shift even more power to Trump. This is partially an ideological project, based in the far-right’s vision of a “unitary executive” with dictator levels of power. But it also resembles the way family members of an abusive narcissist tip-toe around him, trying to avoid drawing his ire while waiting for him to either leave or die.