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WASHINGTON (AP) Former President Donald Trump stepped up his election-year effort to dominate the Republican Party, holding a rally in Arizona on Saturday in which he castigated anyone who dares to question his lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, including the states GOP governor, Doug Ducey.

But 2,000 miles to the east in Washington, there are small signs that some Republicans are tiring of the charade. Mike Rounds, the generally unassuming senator from South Dakota, was perhaps the boldest in acknowledging the reality that the election was in fact fair. Instead of being shunned, he was supported by his GOP colleagues, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Rounds later said the party needed to get louder in telling voters the truth about the 2020 campaign.

Meanwhile, top Republicans in Washington have engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to encourage Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, one of Trumps most vocal antagonists in the party, to run for a Senate seat. And on Saturday, Glenn Youngkin became the first Republican since 2010 to be sworn in as Virginias governor after running a campaign that kept Trump at arms length.

Less than two months before the 2022 primary season begins, Trump remains the most popular figure among the voters who will decide which Republicans advance to the fall general election. But the recent dynamics bring new clarity to the debate that will likely animate the GOP all year: how closely candidates should align themselves with Trump and his election lie.

I was very encouraged by the response from a number of different senators supportive of Sen. Rounds, said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been a rare Republican urging the party to move on from Trump and his election obsession.

There is no evidence to support Trumps claims that the election was stolen. Elections officials and his own attorney general rejected the notion. Trumps arguments have also been roundly dismissed by the courts, including judges appointed by the former president.

Still, dissent from Trumps election lie within the GOP remains rare. From Ohio to Georgia and Arizona, candidates running for Senate, governor and attorney general have fully embraced Trumps falsehoods as they have tried to win over his endorsement, deflect his fury or win over his base. Those efforts were on full display in Arizona Saturday night as Trump-endorsed candidates falsely declared the election had been stolen and Trump the duly elected president.

In the short term, such positioning may help Republican candidates come out on top in primary fields that are often crowded. But there are concerns that it could hurt the party in the fall, especially among suburban voters who have become increasingly decisive in recent campaigns. The further to the right that Republicans go now, the easier it could become for their Democratic rivals to portray them as extreme in a general election.

And any time candidates spend looking backward is time not spent attacking President Joe Biden, who is seen as particularly vulnerable due to rising inflation and coronavirus cases.

Its one of those issues thats quintessentially popular in a primary and unpopular in a general, said Chris DeRose, a Republican attorney and former clerk of the superior court in Arizonas Maricopa County.

He said candidates, who often privately acknowledge the election was fair, were clearly courting the former president by expressing skepticism about the 2020 election.

Donald Trumps obviously the most sought-after endorsement among Republican candidates, he said. That can make all the difference in a Republican primary.

John Shimkus, a Republican and former Illinois congressman, said it was easy for armchair quarterbacks who arent on the ballot to judge candidates doing what they can to win their primaries.

All the races are going to be fought by Trump and highlighted on Fox. So these candidates have to be very, very careful. They have to win the primary to win the general, he said.

The risk, however, is clear in Arizonas Senate race. In a year favoring Republicans, the state should be a relatively attainable pickup and some in the party are eager for Ducey to enter the race against Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly. But Trumps repeated attacks on Ducey, who has refused to back election conspiracies, could make it hard for him to succeed in a GOP primary.

Before his trip, Trump, who continues to tease another run for president in 2024, issued a statement that he would never endorse Ducey. And he continued to rail against him at the rally, which was dominated by his grievances over the election that was held more than 14 months ago.

Hes a disaster, said Trump. Ducey has been a terrible, terrible representative of your state.

Whichever Republicans emerge on top in Arizona and other critical races will have to convince voters that they should participate in an election system Trump has spent years deriding as rigged.

Many Republicans still blame Trump for the partys loss of Georgias two Senate runoff elections in 2021, arguing he depressed turnout by undermining confidence in the voting system, denying them control of the Senate. (Trump has argued that further investigation is the only way to instill confidence in future elections.)

Trump still has this outsized voice and influence and too many candidates fear his wrath, said Charlie Dent, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and Trump critic. We know Donald Trump will use his megaphone to condemn those who dont buy his lies and his false narrative on the 2020 election. So these candidates are put in a bind: If they tell the truth, they run the risk of losing their primaries and incurring the wrath of Trump, and if they acquiesce and go along with this nonsense, they run the risk of alienating a lot of voters.

Still, DeRose said he has no concern that the issue will depress turnout, despite what happened in Georgia.

The Republican base is quite enthusiastic, he said, predicting turnout on par with 2010, when Republicans made historic gains in the House. With soaring inflation, ongoing criticism over Bidens pullout from Afghanistan, he said, Things arent going well in this country and I think youre going to see this enormous blowback.

Others disagreed. Barbara Comstock, a Trump critic and former GOP congresswoman from Virginia, warned Republicans risked nominating fringe candidates who would go on to lose in the general.

Republicans feel like theyre going to win no matter whos on the ticket. And I dont agree with that thesis, she said, pointing to Ohio, where Senate candidates have been trying to desperately out-Trump one another. I think you really are taking a chance in blowing reliable races.

Nonetheless, Trump remained fixated on the issue on Saturday in Florence, Arizona, a Republican stronghold about 70 miles southeast of Phoenix. Its the first of what aides say will be a brisker pace of Trump events in the coming months. Trump on Friday announced another rally later in January in Texas, where the March 1 primary formally ushers in the midterm campaign.

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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Pierre, South Dakota, contributed to this report

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Some in GOP begin testing party's lockstep loyalty to Trump - Associated Press

Before 15-year-old Barron Trump was towering over his parents, the former presidents 6-foot-7 youngest child was a mini-man about town, old photos published by the Sun show.

Barron, born in 2006, was pictured at the US Open as a baby with his parents, Donald and Melania, on the red carpet at FAO Schwarzs Bunny Hop ceremony and sitting on his fathers star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a toddler.

As a tweenager, Barron looked exhausted at the Republican National Convention in 2016. At the same event four years later, he was already taller than his 6-foot-3 father, and was pictured towering over his 5-foot-11 mother in Manhattan in 2021.

Barron is 6-foot-7, can you believe it? And hes 15, the former president said at a Republican event in North Carolina last year.

Eric is short hes only 6-foot-6, he joked of his 37-year-old son, who was previously the tallest in the family.

Details of Barrons life are mainly kept private by the family, but he reportedly attends the private Oxbridge Academy in Florida, where he is in the Class of 2024, has played competitive youth soccer and is into sports.

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See it: Before Barron towered over Donald Trump - New York Post

For months, former President Donald J. Trump has been grumbling quietly to friends and visitors to his Palm Beach mansion about a rival Republican power center in another Florida mansion, some 400 miles to the north.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a man Mr. Trump believes he put on the map, has been acting far less like an acolyte and more like a future competitor, Mr. Trump complains. With his stock rising fast in the party, the governor has conspicuously refrained from saying he would stand aside if Mr. Trump runs for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

The magic words, Trump has said to several associates and advisers.

That long-stewing resentment burst into public view recently in a dispute over a seemingly unrelated topic: Covid policies. After Mr. DeSantis refused to reveal his full Covid vaccination history, the former president publicly acknowledged he had received a booster. Last week, he seemed to swipe at Mr. DeSantis by blasting as gutless politicians who dodge the question out of fear of blowback from vaccine skeptics.

Mr. DeSantis shot back on Friday, criticizing Mr. Trumps early handling of the pandemic and saying he regretted not being more vocal in his complaints.

The back and forth exposed how far Republicans have shifted to the right on coronavirus politics. The doubts Mr. Trump amplified about public health expertise have only spiraled since he left office. Now his defense of the vaccines even if often subdued and almost always with the caveat in the same breath that he opposes mandates has put him uncharacteristically out of step with the hard-line elements of his partys base and provided an opening for a rival.

But that it was Mr. DeSantis a once-loyal member of the Trump court wielding the knife made the tension about much more.

At its core, the dispute amounts to a stand-in for the broader challenge confronting Republicans at the outset of midterm elections. They are led by a defeated former president who demands total fealty, brooks no criticism and is determined to sniff out, and then snuff out, any threat to his control of the party.

That includes the 43-year-old DeSantis, who has told friends he believes Mr. Trumps expectation that he bend the knee is asking too much. That refusal has set up a generational clash and a test of loyalty in the de facto capital of todays G.O.P., one watched by Republicans elsewhere whove ridden to power on Mr. Trumps coattails.

Already, party figures are attempting to calm matters.

Theyre the two most important leaders in the Republican Party, said Brian Ballard, a longtime Florida lobbyist with connections to both men, predicting Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis will be personal and political friends for the rest of their careers.

Mr. Trumps aides also have tried to tamp down questions about the former presidents frustrations, so as not to elevate Mr. DeSantis.

Still, Mr. Trump has made no secret of his preparations for a third run for the White House. And while Mr. DeSantis, who is up for re-election this year, has not declared his plans, he is widely believed to be eyeing the presidency.

Mr. Trump and his aides are mindful of Republicans increasingly public fatigue with the drama that trails Mr. Trump. The former presidents false claims about fraud in the 2020 election which Mr. DeSantis has not challenged and his role in the events leading to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol have some Republicans looking for a fresh start.

Mr. DeSantis is often the first name Republicans cite as a possible Trump-style contender not named Trump.

DeSantis would be a formidable 2024 candidate in the Trump lane should Trump not run, said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor. Hes Trump but a little smarter, more disciplined and brusque without being too brusque.

Notably, Mr. Trump, a longtime student of charisma and mass appeal, as well as an avid reader of polling, has refrained so far from publicly attacking Mr. DeSantis, who is a distant but potent second to him in polls on the 2024 G.O.P. field. His restraint is a break from the mockery and bullying he often uses to attack Republicans he perceives as vulnerable. Mr. Trump made no reference to the governor at a rally in Arizona on Saturday.

Mr. DeSantis has $70 million in the bank for his re-election, a war chest he stocked with help from the Republican rank-and-file and donor class, alike. He has raised his profile in the same spaces Mr. Trump once dominated. The governor is ubiquitous on Fox News, where he is routinely met with the sort of softballs that once arced toward Mr. Trump. And he frequently mixes with the well-tanned Republican donor community near the former presidents winter home in South Florida.

It was not always this way.

Mr. DeSantis was a little-known Florida congressman in 2017, when Mr. Trump, who was then the president, spotted him on television and took keen interest. Mr. DeSantis, an Ivy League-educated military veteran and smooth-talking defender of the new president, was exactly what Mr. Trump liked in a politician.

It wasnt long before Mr. Trump blessed Mr. DeSantiss bid for governor and sent in staff to help him, lifting the lawmaker to a victory over a better-known rival for the partys nomination.

Mr. DeSantis survived the general election and has often governed in a style that mirrors his patron, slashing at the left and scrapping with the news media. But that alone doesnt placate Mr. Trump. As with other Republicans he has endorsed, the former president appears to take a kind of ownership interest in Mr. DeSantis and to believe that he is owed dividends and deference.

Look, I helped Ron DeSantis at a level that nobodys ever seen before, Mr. Trump said in an interview for a forthcoming book, Insurgency, on the rightward shift of the Republican Party, by the New York Times reporter Jeremy W. Peters. Mr. Trump said he believed Mr. DeSantis didnt have a chance of winning without his help.

The former presidents expectation of deference from Mr. DeSantis is a reminder to other Republicans that a Trump endorsement comes with a price, a demand that could prove particularly consequential should he run again and have a stable of Republican lawmakers in his debt.

At times, Mr. Trump has sought to kindle his relationship with Mr. DeSantis. He has suggested the governor would be a strong choice for vice president. Similar courtship has helped win deference from other potential rivals. But Mr. DeSantis has not relented.

I wonder why the guy wont say he wont run against me, Mr. Trump has said to several associates and advisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

Mr. Trump began the recent contretemps by attacking the governors refusal to acknowledge whether he had received a Covid-19 booster shot.

The answer is Yes, but they dont want to say it, because theyre gutless, Mr. Trump said in a television interview this month, referring only to politicians but clearly alluding to Mr. DeSantis. You got to say it whether you had it or not, say it.

Mr. DeSantiss response came on Friday in an interview on the conservative podcast Ruthless. Speaking in front of an in-person audience near St. Petersburg, Fla., the governor said one of his biggest regrets was not forcefully opposing Mr. Trumps calls for lockdowns when the coronavirus first began to spread in the spring of 2020.

Knowing now what I know then, if that was a threat earlier, I would have been much louder, Mr. DeSantis said. The governor said he had been telling Trump stop the flights from China but argued he never thought in early March 2020 that the virus would lead to locking down the country.

Mr. DeSantis then moved quickly to place blame on Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who advised Trump on the countrys Covid response, a much safer target with conservatives.

The former president did not immediately respond. Without a Twitter account, his hair-trigger retorts have become less frequent. A spokesman for Mr. Trump also did not respond to requests for comment. An adviser to Mr. DeSantis declined to comment.

Mr. DeSantis, however, has touched on a delicate issue, one of the few on which Mr. Trump is to the left of his partys hard-liners: the efficacy of the vaccine and deference to public health experts advice on how to curb the spread of the virus.

Mr. Trump has begun blasting warning shots at Mr. DeSantis and other aspiring Republicans, signaling he intends to defend the vaccines his administration helped develop. In an interview with Candace Owens, a right-wing media personality, the former president said the vaccine worked and dismissed conspiracy theories. People arent dying when they take the vaccine, he said.

Mr. DeSantis, though, has been much more eager to focus on his resistance to Covid-19 restrictions, past and present, than to make a robust case for vaccination and booster shots.

Notably, at his rally on Saturday, Mr. Trump did not promote vaccines and criticized so-called Covid lockdowns.

Mr. Trumps loudest antagonists are likely to continue to stoke the tension between the two men. Ann Coulter, the conservative commentator who has fallen out with the former president, delighted in the dust-up this week.

Trump is demanding to know Ron DeSantiss booster status, and I can now reveal it, Ms. Coulter wrote on Twitter. He was a loyal booster when Trump ran in 2016, but then he learned our president was a liar and con man whose grift was permanent.

In an email, Ms. Coulter, herself a part-time Florida resident, put a finer point on what makes Mr. DeSantiss rise unsettling for the former president. Trump is done, she wrote. You guys should stop obsessing over him.

Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting.

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Who Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise Between Trump and Ron DeSantis - The New York Times

About three dozen former US officials who served under President Donald Trump jumped on a conference call this week to figure out how to thwart Trump's efforts in the 2022 and 2024 elections, according to CNN.

Jake Tapper reported on the call, which was said to have taken place last Monday and involved high-profile Trump officials including John Kelly, Trump's former chief of staff. Also on the call, per CNN, were the former White House staffers Alyssa Farah Griffin and Anthony Scaramucci, the former Department of Homeland Security official Elizabeth Neumann, and Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

CNN noted that the people associated with the call were known critics of Trump. Kelly has made several statements about Trump, saying the former president "doesn't know any history at all, even some of the basics on the US." He also said in August 2020 that informing Trump that the things he planned to do were illegal was like "French kissing a chainsaw."

Scaramucci, who held the role of White House communications director for less than two weeks, has broken with Trump and repeatedly feuded with the former president. Griffin, a former spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence who also served as Trump's communications director, was ridiculed by the president, who called her a "clown." She also commented in January that the Republican Party was "morally in disrepair" because of the GOP's failure to acknowledge the January 6 Capitol riot was a "big deal."

According to Tapper, Miles Taylor, a Trump official turned prominent Trump critic, helped lead the call and told CNN the participants were "overflowing with ideas" on how to stop Trump. Ideas, according to Tapper, included "shining a light" on the former president's financial backers and figuring out how to defeat Trump-endorsed candidates running in 2022 and 2024.

"We all agreed passionately that letters and statements don't mean anything," Taylor told CNN. "The two operative words are 'electoral effects.' How can we have tangible electoral effects against the extremist candidates that have been endorsed by Trump?"

Taylor is best known for anonymously writing a scathing 2018 New York Times op-ed article titled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration."

The Trump-era White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham was said to have missed the call because of a COVID-19 infection but told CNN she was still engaged with the group. Grisham signaled the group's plans earlier this month, saying on January 6 that the group planned to meet to talk about how they could "formally do some things to try and stop" Trump.

The group which has not released its name or published a list of members is among several GOP-linked organizations that have expressed opposition to Trump. In October, a Republican group called Republicans for Voting Rights put up several billboards across the US, including in Times Square, to remind the former president that he lost the 2020 election. The Lincoln Project, founded by current and former Republicans, also worked during the 2020 election to prevent Trump's reelection.

Trump has not yet announced a 2024 presidential run and said in November that he would "probably" wait until after the 2022 midterm elections to confirm his decision on a 2024 presidential bid.

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Dozens of former Trump staff had call to figure out how to thwart Trump in 2022, 2024 - Business Insider

Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.

Late-night hosts were not surprised to hear that New York States attorney general, Letitia James, is accusing Donald Trumps family business of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its assets.

One year ago today, Donald Trump was still in the White House, throwing chicken nuggets at the TV, and one year from today, he could be in jail, Jimmy Kimmel said.

For almost two hours, Biden took question after question about Russia, Covid, voter rights. He really got into why Dennys breakfast menu is so sticky all the time. JIMMY KIMMEL

The president took a lot of questions, too many questions. You know how at the end of most press conferences, the reporters are yelling Mr. President, Mr. President!? At the end of this one, they were like, Goodbye. Were good. We got plenty. JIMMY KIMMEL

On Wednesdays Late Show, Christine Baranski said fans who mistake her for her sophisticated characters wouldnt believe how loud she gets when watching the Buffalo Bills.

Twitter legend Dionne Warwick will pop by Thursdays Late Show.

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Jimmy Kimmel Not Surprised by Trump Fraud Allegations - The New York Times