The GOP Is as Divided as Ever

Donald Trump’s victory was the biggest surprise of Election Night 2016. That shock overshadowed another, only slightly smaller, surprise: that the Republican Party won unified control of Washington. The GOP awoke the next day to find itself about to take charge of the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives—on paper, unstoppable.

In the runup to the election, which nearly everyone expected Trump to lose, the focus of Republican energy was on the hotly anticipated civil war expected to break out in the wake of the party’s defeat between moderate, establishment Republicans, who wanted to steer the party away from the excesses of Trump, and the right-wing insurgents who helped carry Trump to victory in the primary. Overnight, the party’s focus shifted from its own internal differences to the great achievements suddenly within reach that only unified control of Washington allows.