He owns them though. When he forces his wants to be their wants, they become one and the same.

@JeffMurray

In a contest between Trump and their religious leaders, if such a contest happens, who will the evangelicals follow?

I don’t know, but recall reading that in the 1830s, after the Second Great Awakening, they went back to their churches.

@yvilletom I suppose is that happened he could lose them, but most of the religious leaders fell in love with him after he cheated on his 3rd wife who was having his 5th child by raw-dogging a porn star. I don't see them jumping ship either...
For your consideration:

@JeffMurray - A testament to the power of self deception, and the power of a practiced con man. Anyone who believes trump is a true believing Christian when he can't name any favorite Bible passage or who refers to Second Corinthians as Two Corinthians is willfully ignoring the obvious - trump has little to no exposure to the Bible and czn't have much belief in the religioun based on it.

I'm not sure how behind the scenes the motivation is. They seem to telegraph everything for us. They know Trump owns his voters, and they want those votes so they can't cross him no matter how toxic he is.

@JeffMurray - You may be correct about that.

I don't see much of a difference between them hating him but treating him like they love him and actually loving him. The end result is the same. If they don't have enough of a spine to create distance from him now, they won't magically grow one later.
Fuck, even Republicans that already said they're not running for reelection won't cross Trump. Portman from Ohio claims he's not running, but still voted to declare the impeachment unconstitutional. How is that not an indication that they love him instead of just fearing losing his loyal voters?
Trump 2024 merch is already on !! The problem the GOP is having isn't going away any time soon.

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@JeffMurray I am going by what reporters say these Senators are saying behind closed doors. They blame Trump for losing the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. He has single handedly torn their party apart. Yeah, the love him. They have let him put them in an impossible position. If they convict the base will go nuts. If he stays the party continues down this suicidal path.

@Sticks48 Well, not him, the voters. The voters won him the primary and they had to get in line, because that's what Republicans do. Maybe they are having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that a racist pile of shit is what near have of the electorate feels represents them. But that's not going away. So they need to deal with it now and take their lumps (which I don't see happening), or continue to deal with the devil and suffer whatever consequences follow.
And I don't trust what the reporters say the GOP Senators said in private. There was talk a couple weeks ago that suggested McConnell may vote to convict and look what happened. They are using the press to manipulate us.

@JeffMurray Al these reporters lie. How thye hell do you think we know3 all the crap we know that went on in the Trump Administration, oh yeah, REPORTERS. If you can't decern thye difference in fake news and real news that is on you.

@Sticks48 Well, obviously the thing about McConnell was fake news and we didn't know it...

@Sticks48 The is no such thing as 3 viable parties in our system of government. Either there will be 1 viable party because the other has fractured fairly evenly, or a new one will form that will ultimately absorb most of the old one as it dissolves. If Trump forms a party (I hear he's going with "Patriot Party" and his followers stick with him as I suppose they will, the current GOP will die and everyone in it will either waste their votes voting 3rd party like the Bernie Bros did, or they will get the fuck in line and follow Trump like they have been doing for 4+ years. Republicans love power too much, so I assume it will be the latter. Not sure if Trump will follow through, but if he wants to, he can easily do it.

The McConnell thing was the leaked stuff about him supporting the impeachment trial and maybe even voting to convict himself as a way to excise a toxic Trump from the party. It was all bullshit. It added a little more fuel to the fire of "this trial is unconstitutional" because it was delivered after Trump left office. And 45 fucking GOP Senators voted to not even have a trial. My point is that just because reputable sources report something, and it sounds legit, still doesn't mean it is, especially when the GOP is involved.