David Pakman

We are seeing a total evaporation of Republican respect for Trump to the extent that it still existed a year ago.

Nobody is going to say it out loud unless they have nothing to lose.

Marjorie Taylor Greene quit.

She has nothing to lose.

So she's saying it.

But most it's political suicide if you have something to lose.

And so they're not going to say it, but we see it with their behavior.

When you respect the leader, you take their words and you carry them forward, you know, like the Olympic torch.

When the respect fades, you treat their words like, OK, this is a fire.

I've got to contain the fire.

They set a fire.

If I put it out, he'll be mad because he wanted the fire.

But I don't want the fire to get bigger.

Let me just do what I can to keep the fire roughly the same size.

It's not going to get bigger, but it's not going to get smaller.

And that.

attitude is growing.

Once the people in the system start hedging and kind of distancing and protecting themselves, you have a dynamic that's permanently broken.

Trump's entire political identity is built on the idea that he's the one person in charge

Everybody else is passengers.