Trump has put GOP in an 'impossible trap': analysis

Former President Donald Trump is enjoying overwhelming support from the Republican Party base in the wake of his indictment on multiple felony charges this week.

However, New York Magazine's Eric Levitz argues that this predicament has put the GOP into an "impossible trap" that will harm its ability to win back the presidency in 2024.

He says that this is a particular problem for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has tried to portray himself as a more electorally palatable version of Trump.

"In the eyes of the conservative base, to attack Trump is to aid and abet the president’s persecution at the hands of Soros and his minions," he argues. "To question his electability, meanwhile, is tantamount to calling on Republicans to let the terrorists win."

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But obeying the demands of the Republican base also requires defying the views of the median American voter, whom polls show think that Trump's criminality is at least a probable proposition.

"The political implications of Trump’s legal troubles are therefore paradoxical," he concludes. "On the one hand, they have made his greatest liability as a candidate for the GOP nomination worse; all else equal, Trump is almost certainly less likely to win a general election while being criminally prosecuted than he otherwise would be. And yet, those legal troubles have also rendered Trump’s uncertain electability inadmissible in the court of Republican opinion, thereby increasing his odds of winning the GOP nomination."