IT'S A SALUTARY MOMENT OF CLARITY...:

If the goal was to limit the damage Trump could do to the party on his way out, it didn't work.

But would the situation actually be different if GOP leadership had ripped the Band-Aid off in November? A large percentage of Republican voters trust Trump and Trump alone. "The reality is there's no winning strategy here; whatever you do will be subject to the wannabe emperor's whims of that day," said Doug Heye, a longtime Republican operative who worked in House leadership. "This is the self-created box that they've all found themselves in."

Maybe Trump is trying to reclaim his 'outsider' persona heading into his post-presidency. Maybe he's looking for another avenue through which he can raise money. Maybe he's simply thrashing around out of spite. But Republicans were deluding themselves if they thought they could avoid this fight with him. "It's the natural progression of the Faustian bargain," GOP consultant Rob Stutzman said. "You can't just break up with the devil over text."

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