Trump has splintered GOP leadership -- and it could be devastating in the midterm elections: report

Donald Trump has left DC for retirement at Mar-a-Lago, but his outsized role in the Republican Party could have major implications in the 2022 midterm elections.

"The two men now leading the Republican Party usually align during political crises. But the Trumpian chaos splintering the G.O.P. is not only testing Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, and Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader — it's also highlighting their differences in how to handle the former president and hampering a united strategy for retaking Congress next year," Jonathan Martin of The New York Times reported Saturday.

"This past week illustrated Mr. McCarthy's challenge. In a conference call on Wednesday, he instructed House Republicans to 'cut the crap,' according to two officials who participated. While he didn't specify what he had in mind, there were plenty of options, from Republicans' trying to punish Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) for voting to impeach former President Donald J. Trump to the extremism of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon devotee whose paper trail of conspiracy mongering keeps growing," Martin explained. "Then on Thursday, Mr. McCarthy made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Mr. Trump and declare that the former president was 'committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022.' Hours later, two of Mr. Trump's most enthusiastic lieutenants, his eldest son and Representative Matt Gaetz, used a rally in Wyoming to highlight one Republican they're committed to helping elect next year: whoever challenges Ms. Cheney in her primary."

The top two GOP leaders are split.

"For Mr. McConnell, the path to reclaiming the majority decidedly does not go through Mr. Trump. The Kentucky senator has stopped speaking to Mr. Trump, hasn't taken his calls since after the Electoral College met last month and has told associates that he envisions 2022 as an outsized replay of the Tea Party era, when party leaders clashed with the far right," The Times reported. "Taken together, the two leaders' drama has thrust a dilemma before lawmakers that many of them dread — whether to, in defeat, continue embracing Mr. Trump and a demagogic style of politics that delights millions on the right but cost Republicans control of the White House and Congress."