Ex-GOP lawmaker offers 'two options' for how to deal with new Trump administration

Donald Trump’s stunning electoral victory allowed him to consolidate his power within his own party, but the Republican resistance to the incoming president is starting to take shape, and those a part of it are scrambling for ideas on how to move forward, according to a new report.

Trump's broad support among congressional Republicans has taken reforming the party “off the table,” and cast doubt that a new party by disaffected Republicans could emerge, former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-FL) told POLITICO.

“It’s down to two options,” Walsh said in an interview with the publication. “Productively throw rocks at the administration — kind of be like a group in exile and from a distance do what we can to damage MAGA, knowing we can never go back — or become Democrats.”

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And half of that strategy already appears to be in play. POLITICO noted in a Friday report that former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock and former Vice President Mike Pence have all come out in recent days to oppose Trump’s various cabinet picks.

“But the opinions of Haley and Pence — or those of the more staunchly anti-Trump Republicans who have criticized his cabinet picks as bad for national security or simply unqualified for their prospective posts — aren’t exactly widely regarded within the MAGA movement,” according to the report.

“Who cares what Mike Pence thinks?” Mike Davis, a top lawyer in the MAGA movement, told POLITICO.

The Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell said the only way for Trump “to be checked” is for members within the Republican Party “to not cave completely” to him, the report noted.

“And who will push back against the most damaging things,” the anti-Trump GOP strategist told POLITICO.