'Trumpism without Trump': MAGA movement may be moving on without ex-president who inspired it

The movement created by Donald Trump may survive -- thrive, even -- without him.

A series of losses by Trump-backed GOP candidates shows the former president's loosening grip on the Republican Party, but that doesn't mean it's giving up the bigotry, corruption and conspiracy theories that characterized Trumpism, argued The Bulwark's Charlie Sykes.

"The future of the Republican party will not be progressive, centrist, traditional conservative, neoconservative, Reagan-Ryan conservative, or even Never Trump," Sykes wrote. "It is far more likely to be Trumpism without Trump."

Trump remains the dominant figure in the GOP but his grip seems to be weakening, with some big-name Republicans willing to take him on publicly, and there seems to be an emerging gap between the former president and the movement he inspired.

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"So, in 2024, will voters separate support for the Big Lie from support for Donald Trump himself?" Sykes wrote. "The problem, of course, is that the Big Lie is inseparable from Trump, because he has drawn the line himself. To support Trump means supporting the Big Lie. Rejecting the Big Lie, means breaking up with Trump."

"Tuesday’s vote made it clear that this is no longer automatically fatal in the GOP," he added.