What a difference a week makes. A week ago, Republicans were afraid to oppose the President. Today, they’re afraid to support him.

Texas is a good example. A long-standing Republican Senator voted his conscience over the last two years. For that, Trump ruined him. He endorsed and campaigned for a light-weight, corruption-ridden sycophant. With Trump’s endorsement and aid, the sycophant defeated the long-term Senator in the GOP primary.

Trump’s message was clear. Don’t cross me.

This week, however, all of Texas went blue. Trump’s hand-picked Senate candidate lost by 18 points to an unknown Democrat. The GOP candidate in Texas lost bigly, not despite the Trump endorsement, but because of it.

The same story played out nearly everywhere. Republicans were torched for the sole reason that they were the party of Trump.

That’s proven by the state initiatives which were not tied to Trump. The people mainly voted for the conservative side on nameless social issues like taxes (even California defeated the foolish wealth tax) and transsexuals on women’s sports teams. But they punished named Republican candidates for no reason other than they were the party of Trump.

The only exception worth noting was in Florida, where Governor DeSantis could credibly claim that he was no Trumpster. But even in Florida, the GOP nearly lost a Senate seat to a wild-eyed socialist. In Michigan, they did lose to a wild-eyed socialist – and they went on to lose in every other battleground state. Every single one.

That’s the bad that has already happened. Here’s the bad that is yet to come.

Republicans will recognize the lesson of Texas and elsewhere. Trump is no longer an asset to their political future; he’s a liability. He’s poison.

Trump will of course be impeached by the newly Democratic House, and he will be tried in the newly Democratic Senate. Expect very damaging testimony about corruption – as in Russian oligarchs paying for Trump family wedding receptions, and high-level official dalliances, and “$100K wire transfer by the end of the day,” and cryptocurrency windfalls, and 80-year-old Trump’s infatuation with young attractive Press Secretaries, and Presidential pardons for sale, and the ham-handed attempt at re-naming the Kennedy Center, and on and on.

After all that dramatic made-for-TV testimony, Democrats might even find enough Republican Senators to get to the 67 necessary to remove him from office. What better way for a Republican Senator to say to the folks back home, “I’m no Trumpster” than to vote to remove him from office?

Regardless, the best cabinet Secretaries are likely to resign. Marco Rubio will quit so that he can run for President in 2028 against the sitting Vice President. Steve Bessent will preserve his reputation by returning to Wall Street to make billions.

Their replacements will not be confirmed by the newly-Democratic Senate, and so they will be “temporary” appointments. The stature of a person who is attracted to these “temporary” positions will be commensurate with the title they stand to receive. In short, they won’t fill the shoes of their predecessors.

Trump will not have another federal judge confirmed by the Senate after January, 2027.

Foreign leaders are high-fiving, these days, if that’s something that’s done in foreign lands. Little foreign leaders from powerless countries like Canada and Greenland derived power at home by defying Trump even before this tsunami. Imagine their boldness now.

Bigger foreign leaders will be sorely tempted to test the beleaguered President. Putin may think, “If I invade Poland, Trump will oppose me or not. If he opposes me, that means the rest of America will support me. On the other hand, if he does not oppose me, that means I face no American opposition. Either way, I get Poland.”

Same thing with regard to China, Taiwan and Xi. Not to mention the crazies in Iran. Weak American Presidents make for a weak American presence.

And so, I arrive at a conclusion that is reluctant, especially since I voted for the man three times (or maybe I voted against his opponents three times).

Trump should resign.

There are several principled reasons for this. A resignation would of course immediately put the kibosh on impeachment proceedings. I suppose the Democrats could continue with their Congressional investigations, but they wouldn’t have the same teeth or be the same media show.

JD Vance as Trump’s successor would not be tainted with Trump-poison as badly as Trump himself. He might even be able to find some talent for a cabinet.

The overall GOP would be much less tainted by Trumpism. There is some chance that we could regain power in the states and maybe even win the Presidency in 2028. (However, the Senate and House are probably lost until at least 2030. There will be no Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices until at least 2030, by which time Justices Alito and Thomas will probably have been replaced by Justices that are much less conservative.)

Democrats would of course rejoice for a moment at Trump’s resignation. I don’t like happy Democrats any more than you do. But let’s form a strategy more nuanced than, “Whatever makes Democrats happy for a moment is the thing we should not do.”