GOP operatives still fear taking on Trump even after his 'basket of lemon' candidates blew winnable races

A new report from the Washington Examiner's David Drucker claims that Republican operatives are furious that former President Donald Trump cost them multiple winnable races with candidates that Drucker describes as a "basket of lemons."

Ohio Republican strategist David Myhal went on the record to tell Drucker that "it’s time for Trump to retire" and then added that "I see golf courses and a rocking chair in his future."

“We have a Trump problem,” said an unnamed GOP operative. “The hangover from President Trump is going to take a lot more than a couple of Excedrin to get past.”

However, Drucker has found that there is overall little appetite for showing Trump the door among other party hopefuls.

READ MORE: Trump-loving candidate's election party 'devolved into chaos' after he conceded to Democratic rival: report

"The former president’s relationship with grassroots conservatives has been strong, surviving the Democratic wave he fueled in the 2018 midterm elections, his own defeat — and loss of the Senate majority he contributed to in 2020 — and the subsequent riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he refused to concede to now-President Joe Biden," he writes. "Rebuking Trump for his role in the GOP’s disappointing 2022 election tempts a backlash from the GOP base."

This comes even as multiple right-wing media outlets, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, are trying to rally GOP voters around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the new leader of the party.