To close the last post, I wrote “…it is clear that Trump is running cover for a foreign government credibly accused of committing crimes against individuals, organizations, and the electoral system of a whole, and is subsuming the interests of the country to his own vast, dark emptiness. That can no longer be denied…” But even I was writing that, I remembered the man for whom the phrase “shameless cynicism” was coined, Mr. Newt Gingrich.

Dig this crazy shit.

This is brilliant. It lets Newt seem tough, like he’s holding the President to account. That “immediately” is certainly a big boy thing to say. But look at the language. “Trump must clarify”, as if it isn’t absolutely 100% clearly what Trump meant to say because he’s been saying it every single day of his Presidency.  Newt is still pretending there is a Trump there that isn’t the Trump we see.

That’s also clear in saying that this is “a mistake”, as if it isn’t what Trump was trying to do. Saying “this was a mistake” plays into the “Trump’s just rough around the edges because he’s not a real politician” nonsense.

It’s obvious to see why. Trump is still extremely popular among Republicans, and Newt, who is a spineless coward, can’t criticize him. He also can’t really do so because Newt has been propping Trump up as an avatar of courageous Republicanism, out of a combination of self-serving greed and unctuous sycophancy.

It’s easy to say that Newt is out of it, of course, though he probably still thinks he should be President. But no one can deny he doesn’t know which way the wind is blowing, and doesn’t know in his black cynical heart just how to connect with the base.

But it’s deeper than that. It’s been clear to everyone paying attention–which is to say, everyone except those paid to talk about this on TV–that the republican Party has zero interest in reining in Trump, so long as he deregulates air and water, crushes unions, helps suppress votes, turns the country into a grist mill for the rich, and puts enough justices on the bench to overturn Roe.

This isn’t an aberration. It’s long been clear that Trump is the apotheosis of conservative thought, even taking into account his own tacky absurdities. There’s no real reason to stop his authoritarian, right-wing white nationalism, or his groveling toward Russia. Hell, most of the party is already ok with all that stuff, but at long as he keeps doing what right-wingers want, he’ll most likely be fine.

One more piece of evidence? Here’s the tweet Gingrich sent not one hour later. 

Party’s still on, boys.