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Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) bucked the former president by stumping this week for Rep. Mo Brooks in his bid for Alabamas GOP Senate nomination the same congressman that Trump unceremoniously ditched after initially endorsing. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu openly mocked him in front of a Washington dinner audience, joking about Trumps sanity.

Few in the party doubt that Trump still maintains an iron grip on his base. They acknowledge the former presidents endorsement in primary contests remains influential. But to many, Trumps habit of rolling grenades into Republican primaries is getting old, and fears that he might damage the partys promising prospects for gains this fall appear to be opening a new chapter in the GOPs relationship with him.

We have to be the party of tomorrow, not the party of yesterday, Christie, who campaigned for Kemp in Georgia, told POLITICO. But more important than that, what we have to decide is: do we want to be the party of me or the party of us? What Donald Trump has advocated is for us to be the party of me, that everything has to be about him and about his grievances.

Christie added: Trump picked this fight.

Never was it more obvious than in Georgia, where Trump was the proximate cause of the loss of Republican-held Senate seats in 2021 and then ignited a civil war within the party, all because top state officials refused to overturn the 2020 election results there.

The result was a thrashing at the polls for several Trump-endorsed candidates. Kemp won by a landslide and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, another target of Trumps ire, also emerged victorious.

I think the former president has been poorly advised because hes made a lot of endorsements in an effort to showcase his formidability, a Pence adviser said, and that has the counter-effect that actually shows the endorsement doesnt carry the same weight it once did.

Gregg Keller, a Missouri-based Republican strategist, said its essential for an ideologically and culturally diverse party to have politically countervailing forces against some of Trumps ill-advised endorsement picks.

It shows that while people realize Donald Trump is virtually, in every way, still the leader of the Republican Party, people are willing to stick their necks out and support good candidates opposite of Trump when they see them, Keller said.

In some of the most contentious Senate primaries this year, top Republicans have found themselves supporting a different candidate than Trump because he waited months to get involved after allegiances had already been pledged.

In Ohio, for example, Trump endorsed J.D. Vance two weeks before the May 3 primary. In Pennsylvania, he threw his support behind Mehmet Oz just over a month before the election.

In both cases, national Republicans had already offered their support to other candidates months earlier: Cruz, for instance, had endorsed Josh Mandel in Ohio and David McCormick in Pennsylvania. In the months leading up to Trumps endorsement of Oz, McCormick had assembled a team of former Trump advisers and officials like Kellyanne Conway, Hope Hicks, Mike Pompeo, Larry Kudlow, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

I cant imagine that somebodys been running for office for a year, a whole bunch of people take positions on the race, then Trump decides to endorse somebody, and that means you cant be for them anymore? Fuck that, said a national Republican strategist involved in Senate races, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

GOP strategists say this post-primary moment following Trumps bitter defeat in Georgia isnt a low-water mark of Trumps influence, but rather an acknowledgment that he is not the alpha and omega of every political calculation that will unfold from now until 2024.

Im not sure he has a clipboard and says, Well, Tom Cotton didnt follow my endorsement here and here hes banished, the national strategist added. Mike Pompeo didnt do it here, so hes against me, and Ted Cruz didnt do it here. You have a decision to make, whether you want to lean in or lean back. In politics, theres no reward for leaning back most are making the decision to lean in and try and win.

Now, GOP strategists are turning their attention to Missouri, where the next front in the battle between Republican heavyweights and Trump may unfold.

With an Aug. 2 primary, Missouris safe GOP Senate seat could become more competitive if former Gov. Eric Greitens becomes their nominee, party leaders have warned. Greitens resigned from office mid-term in 2018 amid a criminal case and allegations of sexual assault. Greitens, though, has long remained at or near the front of the pack. Republican and Democratic polling has shown an uncomfortably close general election race if Greitens were on the ballot.

Trump has yet to endorse in the primary, but some state and national Republicans fear he might weigh in for Greitens.

Is President Trump going to endorse Eric Greitens? Keller asked. I think that observers believe that that would be a very bad decision for the Republican Party in this situation, and I think its important to have people like Sen. Cruz who are willing to come in and say, I dont know what the president is going to do, but there are some other good conservatives running in this race.

Cruz earlier this year endorsed Eric Schmitt, the states attorney general who is using the same campaign consulting firm as Cruz, Axiom Strategies.

Prominent interest groups in the Republican universe also appear to be increasingly comfortable stiff-arming Trump. The Club for Growth, the anti-tax organization headed by David McIntosh, whose super PAC has been one of the top outside spending groups on Senate races this cycle, doubled down on its support for Mandel after Trump endorsed Vance. The Club went so far as to increase its ad buy featuring old clips of Vance disparaging Trump, a decision that reportedly angered the former president and put Trump and McIntosh squarely at odds.

Weeks later in Pennsylvania, the Club defied the former president once again. Its endorsement of Kathy Barnette the week before the primary election including spending more than $2 million on ads supporting her could be interpreted as a clear sign of rebuke to Trumps endorsement of Oz. Barnettes last-minute momentum likely ate into Ozs lead, leaving him and McCormick in a tight recount more than a week after the election.

The Club also stood firm in its Senate endorsement of Brooks in Alabama after Trump rescinded his support in March, continuing to buy television ads on Brooks behalf and releasing a statement in which McIntosh called Brooks the only principled, pro-growth conservative in the race.

After Trumps decision to yank his endorsement of Brooks a move the former president made as Brooks was floundering in the polls, but blamed on the congressman going woke for wanting to move on from the 2020 election other prominent Republicans stepped in to lend their support.

Paul, who, like Cruz, backed Brooks in the Alabama Senate primary, also reiterated his support.

Earlier this month, the National Rifle Association endorsed Brooks support the congressman promptly announced in a television ad that ran across the deep-red state, where Second Amendment rights remain a top priority for voters.

On Monday, both Cruz and Paul stumped for Brooks, Cruz coming to Huntsville and Paul holding an election eve tele-town hall with 13,000 Republican voters.

If you get into the runoff, Im looking at my calendar I think I might want to come down to Alabama and help if you make it into the runoff, Paul said to Brooks at the end of the call Monday.

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, left, waves during a campaign appearance with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in Huntsville, Alabama, on Monday, May 23.|Kim Chandler/AP Photo

After the Brooks event in Alabama on Monday, Cruz said he was pleased when Trump had initially put his support behind Brooks, but that he was ultimately endorsing the congressman because he believed Brooks was the most conservative candidate in the race and one who could win, regardless of Trumps endorsement.

Listen, Donald Trump has made a lot of endorsements across the country, Cruz told reporters. A lot of them have won, not all of them. And on the vast majority, President Trump and I have agreed and weve endorsed the same candidates. Sometimes we havent. Everyones got to make their own choices.

Brooks campaign, it turns out, wasnt finished when Trump pulled the plug. A late surge took him to second place in Tuesdays primary and he will compete against Katie Britt in a June 21 runoff.

Christie didnt tiptoe around some of Trumps endorsement missteps.

When hes wrong, Christie said, hes wrong.

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'Trump picked this fight': Why heavyweight Republicans no longer fear Trump - POLITICO

The 2011 race also augured some of the next decades personalities and conflicts. Pence was at the track, and he had just recently announced he wouldnt run for president in 2012 but would pursue the governors residence instead. Pete Buttigieg, then a candidate for South Bend mayor, attended the race for the first time that year. The two Hoosier foes met that day. We exchanged some pleasantries, and I didnt think much of it or expect to see him anytime soon, Buttigieg wrote in his memoir, Shortest Way Home.

Trumps looming presence, though, had cast a shadow over the race. After news broke that Trump would drive the pace car, Wallack created a Facebook page calling on the IMS to Bump Trump. I have no problem if Trump dislikes President Obama or his policies, Wallack wrote on the page. But to step over the line into the realm of conspiracy-mongering is not good for politics or for America. And it should not be rewarded with the honor of driving the pace car at the Indianapolis 500.

Within days, the page had garnered more than 17,000 likes.

Reporters peppered IMS officials with questions about how they would respond to the controversy Trump had created. We are certainly aware of the Facebook page, and we have certainly received complaints, Boles, then the IMS vice president of communications, told reporters. But we have also received comments from other folks in support of Donald Trump driving the pace car.

Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Baptist Ministers Alliance called on IMS to rescind its invitation to Trump. Organizers of the 500 Festival, which hosts race-adjacent events such as the Indy 500 Festival Parade, weighed whether to have Trump featured in the parade through downtown Indianapolis. Weve always traditionally extended this invitation to the pace car driver, said Megan Bulla, who was in charge of public relations for the parade at the time. At what point do you kind of step in and say, no, because of politics, or no, because of peoples stances? It was kind of this uncomfortable, like, well, weve never said no in the past, so at what point do we draw the line or make a statement?

Jane Jankowski, spokesperson for then-Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, told reporters that Daniels was in favor of whatever sells tickets. Pence, who would stay quiet through most of Trumps biggest controversies as vice president, doesnt appear to have made any public comments about Trump at the time.

You could see and hear and feel how divisive this was even in our town, recalled Bulla, referencing the blue citys overall somewhat buttoned-down and conservative bent. Maybe it was the start of cancel culture.

The controversy even made it into the pages of POLITICO. Ben Smith, himself a one-time reporter for the Indianapolis Star, published a May 4 item headlined Indy 500 weighs dumping Trump. The reason many of us started to take the notion that Donald Trump would actually run seriously is that hes begun doing real harm to his brand, which is his main asset, Smith wrote, with a hat tip to his colleague Maggie Haberman. No cautious corporation is going to pay for rights to his name if theres a headache attached.

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The Time the Indy 500 Almost Canceled Donald Trump - POLITICO

Former President Donald Trump warned Wyoming rally-goers that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia could turn into World War III, which "would be like no other."

Speaking Saturday in support of his endorsed GOP congressional candidate Harriet Hageman, who is running against longtime Trump rival Liz Cheney, he told attendees at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper that actions by the U.S. could escalate the situation.

"You may end up with a Third World War because of the stupidity of what we're saying and what we're doing," he said. "And we want to help people because of what's happening to them; they're being obliterated. But you know, we could end up in a Third World War because of the way we're going about it. And I never thought that would be possible."

He predicted it "would be like no other war" due to "renovated and brand new nuclear weapons."

"I completely rebuilt the United States military," Trump said. "I hated to do it because I saw the power. I know the power better than anybody. I know the power. And we are in a position that I never thought we'd be in. We have a major country, every day he mentions nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, and China's doing things that they would have never done with us."

Trump said "a lot" of it started with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

"I don't think our country has ever been in a worse position, in a weaker position, a more pathetic position, and a lot of it started from the way we withdrew from Afghanistan," he said.

When he was president, "we were respected. Nobody was going to war with us."

"We didn't have to go to war for people to know that we were the toughest and we were the strongest. We did it in a much different way," he said.

The former president believes Cheney "is at the front of the parade trying to get us to go into wars with Russia or anyone else that wants to bite."

"Liz Cheney hates the voters of the Republican Party and she has for longer than you would know," he said. "Wyoming deserves a congresswoman who stands up for you and your values, not one who spends all of her time putting you down, going after your president in the most vicious way possible. And loving endless, nonsensical, bloody, horrible wars that never end. They just never end."

Newsweek reached out to a Trump representative for additional comment.

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Donald Trump Tells Rally-Goers Third World War 'Would Be Like No Other' - Newsweek

The fate of state Sen. Burt Jones, whom Trump endorsed in the open race for lieutenant governor, remains unclear. While he was leading his nearest challenger by close to 20 percentage points, with 96 percent of the expected vote in, it wasnt clear if Jones would avoid a runoff: He was at 50.1 percent, a hair above the threshold.

Trumps House picks in Georgia werent much more successful. While all 5 of the Republican incumbents he endorsed won, none of them really faced a competitive race three of them, in fact, were unopposed. Trump also backed two candidates in open seat House primaries: Jake Evans in the 6th District and Vernon Jones in the 10th. Both finished in second place and moved on to June 21 runoffs.

The lone bright spot in Trumps Georgia record? His recruited candidate for Senate, Herschel Walker. The former football star maintained a steady lead in the polls since the early days of his campaign and easily sailed to his GOP nomination.

In Alabama, Trump ditched his original pick for the Senate, Rep. Mo Brooks, after the congressmans campaign appeared to be flailing. But Brooks one of Trumps strongest supporters in Congress launched a late comeback and made it to the June 21 runoff, where hell face first-place finisher, Katie Britt.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Won with 82 percent of the vote.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.

Donald Trump endorsed his former White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for Arkansas governor.|Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Won with 83 percent of the vote.

Sanders, Trumps former White House press secretary, said she ran for governor to be part of the last line of defense against a Democratic-helmed federal government. In his endorsement, Trump said Sanders would always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct as governor.

Sanders, whos favored to win in November, would be the second in her family to serve as governor her father, Mike Huckabee, served two terms starting in the 1990s and later ran for president twice.

Won with 58 percent of the vote.

Boozman voted to acquit the former president in Trumps second impeachment trial, though the senator said Trump did bear some responsibility for the events of Jan. 6. Trump endorsed Boozman anyway, providing key cover in a tough primary against former Arkansas Razorbacks star and Army ranger Jake Bequette.

Won with 75 percent of the vote.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Unopposed.

With 96 percent of the expected vote in, Jones was in first place with 50.1 percent of the vote.

In this Sept. 25, 2021, photo Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks during former President Donald Trump's Save America rally in Perry, Ga.|Ben Gray, File/AP Photo

Won with 68 percent of the vote.

Walker, who will face Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November, has had a relationship with Trump for decades, dating back to when Trump owned the short-lived New Jersey Generals football team in the USFL. He was a great football player and will be an even better U.S. Senator if that is even possible, Trump said in September.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Won with 76 percent of the vote.

Clyde, who voted to overturn 2020 election results, drew national attention for his cavalier downplaying of the events of Jan. 6 during a House Oversight Committee hearing. Not only was there not an insurrection, Clyde said, but if you didnt know that TV footage was a video from January 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Unopposed.

He voted to overturn 2020 election results.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during a court hearing on April 22 in Atlanta.|John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images

Won with 70 percent of the vote.

Greene, who voted to overturn the 2020 election results, is one of Trumps most vocal supporters. In his endorsement, Trump said the lightning-rod freshman lawmaker has always been on his side, and is someone who loves our country and MAGA, its greatest ever political movement.

Ken Paxton waves after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole in July 2021 in Dallas, Texas.|Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Won with 68 percent of the vote.

Paxton, who has been mired in scandal and faced abuse of office allegations for much of the past seven years, is a staunch Trump ally. As Texas AG, he challenged the results of the 2020 election in four battleground states but the case was thrown out by the Supreme Court.

He won his Trump endorsement at the expense of George P. Bush, the Bush family scion Paxton defeated in Tuesdays runoff.

Won with 69 percent of the vote.

Won with 59 percent of the vote.

Won with 64 percent of the vote.

Won with 59 percent of the vote.

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Trump made 27 endorsements in Tuesday's primaries. Here are the winners. - POLITICO - POLITICO

The Jaffa school offered an interpretation of American history that might be described as Inception, Consummation and Corruption. Its Great Consummator was Lincoln, who restored the promise of the founding by fully establishing the all men are created equal absolutism of the Declaration of Independence. Its villains were John C. Calhoun and the progressives of the early 20th century, the former for defending slavery and inequality, the latter for replacing a constitutional republic with a bureaucratized administrative state, and both for displaying a philosophical and moral relativism that Jaffa despised (and that, as his intellectual feuds multiplied, he claimed to discern in many of his fellow conservatives as well).

But one thing you noticed hanging around with Claremont folks was that while they were obviously interested in the good and bad of each American regime change, from the original founding (great) to the Lincolnian re-founding (even better) to the progressive re-foundings of Woodrow Wilson (their great villain, the Lost Cause sympathizer turned arrogant technocrat) and Franklin Roosevelt, they were also just really interested in the idea of founding itself, when moments of crisis bring new orders out of old ones.

At one point, as a break from reading founding-era texts, we were treated to a screening of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the great John Ford western whose theme is the Old Wests transition into political modernity, passing from the rule of the gun (embodied by John Waynes Tom Doniphon) to the rule of the lawbook (embodied by Jimmy Stewarts Ransom Stoddard).

In the movie, the transition cant happen without a dose of chaos, a mixture of violence and deception. Lee Marvins outlaw, Valance, challenges the peaceable lawyer Stoddard to a duel; Doniphon saves the lawyer by shooting the outlaw from the shadows and then the killing is mistakenly attributed to Stewarts character, who is lionized for it and goes on to be a great statesman of the New West while the cowboy and his vigilante code recede.

The not-so-subtle implication of the Claremont reading of American history is that this kind of fraught transition doesnt happen once and for all; rather, it happens periodically within the life of any nation or society. Whenever change or crisis overwhelms one political order, one version of (in our case) the American republic, you get a period of instability and rough power politics, until the new era or the new settlement is forged.

But it doesnt happen without moments like Doniphon shooting Valance or Lincoln suspending habeas corpus, say, or Roosevelt threatening to pack the Supreme Court when norms and niceties need to be suspended for the sake of the new system thats waiting to be born.

When I try to understand what Eastman imagined himself doing in serving Donald Trump even unto constitutional crisis, this is where my speculations turn. I dont think this is the necessary implication of Claremont thought; indeed, you can find in the latest issue of The Claremont Review of Books an essay by William Voegeli critiquing conservatives who seem enthused about chaos and overeager to re-found rather than conserve. But I think its an understandable place for the Claremont reading of American history to turn at a time when the American republic does appear sclerotic, stalemated, gridlocked and in need of some kind of conspicuous renewal.

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Opinion | Why Would John Eastman Want to Overturn an Election for Trump? - The New York Times