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Like a chubby, orange-haired, 71-year-old version of Edith Piaf, Donald Trump reportedly declared that, after his legendary press conference meltdown on Tuesday, he regrets nothing . And indeed, there did seem to be an unhinged glee in his now notorious performance, reminiscent of Howard Beale in Network, during which he declared, among other things, that there were some very fine people marching with the torch-bearing neo-fascists in Charlottesville.

It was a stark contrast from Monday, when his staff allegedly forced him to choke out a statement that read in part, "Racism is eviland those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups, that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans." Staring at the teleprompter, he wore the look usually seen on a third grader hauled back to the dime store by his mommy and forced to apologize to the salesclerk for shoplifting.

But no such glum expression crossed his visage the following afternoon, as he decried the loss of toppled Confederate statues, castigated something he called the alt-left, and insisted that there was blame on both sides. We should have been able to gauge his mood even before he crossed the gilded threshold of Trump Tower, since that morning he had already tweeted (and then hastily removed) a cartoon of a train running over a CNN reporter, a particularly tasteful, sensitive contribution to the national debate, given the way in which Heather Heyer was murdered in Charlottesville three days before.

Shell-shocked newscasters (even on Fox! Fox!) expected that this Tuesday debacle, this seeming defense of white supremacy and Neo-Nazism, would be the rhetorical straw that would break the inner circles back, that a red line had been crossed, that a whole gallery of profiles would call out the president and stream out of the West Wing.

We are still waiting for the first staffer to (intentionally) jump off this sinking ship (come on guys, you can do it!). Still, a growing number of Republican lawmakers23 at last counthave critiqued the president by name, the highest-placed among them being Senator Bob Corker, who even appeared to hint that he thinks Trump is nuts, or, as he genteelly put it , that he believes the president has yet to demonstrate stability.

Corker followed a posse of businessmen who took a hike immediately after the Tuesday rant, beginning with Kenneth Frazier, the president of Merck Pharmaceuticals, and swiftly joined by other CEOs. In a K Street version of Youre not breaking up with me! I am breaking up with you first!the president suddenly disbanded the councils on which these fat cats sat.

Wait, so now we kind of like Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart? At least this captain of industry said, in a message posted to the stores website: "As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists." (Can McMillon be a member of this mysterious alt-left?)

Apparently, Anthony Scaramucci is not the only former White House official who doesnt know what off-the-record means: following in the bizarre footsteps of "the Mooch," on Wednesday, White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon appeared in an odd chat with Robert Kuttner, the co-editor of the American Prospect, openly sneering at the presidents threats against North Korea and alleging that his enemies inside the White House were wetting themselves. Seventy-two hours later, in yet another Friday afternoon massacre, Bannon was dead in the water , apparently defenestrated by Chief of Staff John Kelly and sent scurrying back to the rats nest of Breitbart News . Rumor is that the Commander-in-Chief was also sick of Stevie, convinced that Bannon was a leaker, contributing to his not-a-minute-too-soon downfall. (Wetting? Leaking? What's with these disgusting figures of speech?)

Anyway, according to the erstwhile Chief Strategist, who gave a manic interview to The Weekly Standard a few hours after being axed, "The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.

From your evil lips to Gods ears, Mr. Bannon.

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Which Republicans Will Desert Trump's Sinking Ship First? - Vogue.com

President Trump on Aug. 15 said that theres blame on both sides for the violence that erupted in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

In the aftermath of the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Republican lawmakers and leaders face the most unpalatable set of choices yet in their relationship with President Trump. They are caught between disgust over his failure to unequivocally condemn neo-Nazism, a desire to advance a conservative agenda and fears of rupturing the Trump-GOP coalition ahead of the 2018 elections.

Recent condemnations of the president by Republican lawmakers have been harsher, more frequent and sometimes more personal than in previous moments when Trump went beyond what is considered acceptable behavior. Many GOP leaders are now personally wrestling with the trade-offs of making a cleaner separation with the president, while finding no good options.

To some in the party, the hesitancy to act more boldly in response to Trumps handling of the Charlottesville violence specifically his angry news conference Tuesday falls short of what they believe this moment demands.

At what point does a principled party stand up for its principles? Tom Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania and homeland security secretary under President George W. Bush, asked in a midweek interview.

Ridge, a longtime critic of the president, added: You cant be afraid of losing an election because you stood up for what was right. A party of principle requires leadership. But at this time, were kind of rudderless. We need a chorus [of opposition] and we didnt get it. ... And frankly, if we did that, I think most Americans would applaud.

After President Trump's most recent rhetoric about Charlottesville inflamed even more criticism, a handful of GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), are criticizing Trump directly, while others stay silent. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

What Ridge is calling for publicly is what some Republicans are asking themselves privately, which is whether a more direct break with the president is either advisable or possible. There are indications of private conversations underway within Republican circles about the presidents behavior and whether, after seven months in office and a new chief of staff who many GOP officials hoped would temper the presidents behavior, there will ever be a change. Many are concluding that the answer is no. The next question is what to do.

Its clear that, as of now, many Republicans lawmakers, leaders and strategists have reached a pair of uncomfortable conclusions. First, whatever they and a majority of the public believe about the repugnancy of the presidents comments, they believe Trump was duly elected as president on the Republican ticket and that he retains a deeply loyal following within the party. They are reluctant to go against that Trump base.

Second, however personally upset they are by Trumps remarks, many lawmakers believe they must maintain a working relationship with the president if they are to accomplish their legislative goals including tax reform and even a health-care overhaul. So far, they have little to show for their work this year and see progress on that agenda as crucial to keeping grass-roots conservatives and Trump loyalists energized ahead of the 2018 elections.

Interviews with Republicans around the country since Charlottesville highlight the dilemma elected officials face. Few were willing to talk about what comes next, even anonymously, and most elected officials and party leaders contacted declined requests for interviews altogether.

Many of these leaders know that in their states, Trump retains considerable support from Republican voters. Among those attending the Iowa State Fair in the past week a place where Trump made waves two years ago when he landed in his personal helicopter at the fairgrounds there appeared to be no significant dampening of support among his followers.

A large banner reading, Stand With Trump hung behind the Iowa Republican Partys booth inside the Varied Industries Building. By Wednesday afternoon, it was covered in signatures, with few spots left for others to add their names. Every few minutes, people would stop by to take photos with a cardboard cutout of the president.

Althea Cole, a member of the state GOP, worked the booth during the week, talking to people who stopped by. Iowans like Trump. Of course, we had the occasional person come up to us and say, How could you? she said Friday.

Notably, Cole said that several people stopped by the GOP booth to inquire about the states two U.S. senators, Charles E. Grassley and Joni Ernst. They want Iowas two senators, they want Iowas federal representatives, to be behind Trump 100percent, she said.

In another Midwestern state, a group of golfers watched Trumps Tuesday news conference from the clubhouse of their country club and vocally expressed their support for him and agreed with his characterization that both sides bore responsibility for the violence that took place in Charlottesville.

A GOP strategist working campaigns in red and purple states said that while support for Trump generally declined slightly since Charlottesville, support rose among his base, after a decline last month because of the failure on health care and revelations about the Russia investigation. This strategist said many Trump supporters applaud the presidents continuing desire to shake up Washington, favor his economic priorities and admire his willingness to speak his mind.

But he said Trump has nonetheless created a longer-term risk. What hes doing thats harmful is hes removing people from the persuadable audience, and thats dangerous, he said. Hes taken an event where he could have added 5percent of people to the persuadable universe and [instead] hes dumped out 10percent of them.

For many Republicans, this has become a look-in-the-mirror moment, a time for taking stock of their own actions, perhaps equal to or even beyond that which took place in the days after the release of the infamous Access Hollywood video in October. This time, the personal criticisms of the president started more slowly but after Tuesday built to a crescendo as the week unfolded.

Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.), who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, was one of the first to state his displeasure after Trumps Saturday statement, which made no mention of neo-Nazis or white supremacists. He implored the president to call evil by its name. Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who faces reelection next year and who dueled with Trump for the 2016 presidential nomination, was similarly caustic in calling out white supremacists.

On Monday, Trump delivered what many Republicans had hoped to hear Saturday. Reading from a script, he criticized the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear. Had he stopped there, he might have avoided what was to follow. But the next afternoon, during an angry news conference at Trump Tower, the president once again sought to blame both sides and defended the neo-Nazi marchers.

That evening, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said the march organizers were 100percent to blame, adding, Mr. President, you cant allow #WhiteSupremacists to share only part of blame. Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio), accused the president of deflecting attention from the killing of Heather Heyer by a bigoted follower of the white supremacist movement. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, another 2016 primary rival, tweeted that this was a time for moral clarity. I urge @POTUS to unite the country, not parse the assignment of blame.

On Wednesday, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., that the presidents moral authority has been complicated by his response to Charlottesville. Saying Trump had tried to draw moral equivalency between the white supremacists and the counterdemonstrators, he told the paper, I think you are either missing four centuries of history in this nation or you are trying to make something what its not.

On Thursday, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, took the criticism another step by questioning the presidents stability and competence. He said that Trump has not shown that he understands the character of this nation and that without that understanding, Our nation is going to go through great peril.

Then, on Friday, Mitt Romney, the GOPs 2012 presidential nominee, posted a lengthy statement on his Facebook page calling on Trump to undertake remedial action in the extreme to atone for remarks that he said, caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn. Romney said Trump should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong and apologize.

Four magazines the New Yorker, Time, the Economist and Der Spiegel rushed out covers that showed imagery of Trump and some version of a Klansmans hood or a Nazi salute. The Economist declared that Trump had shown himself to be politically inept, morally barren and temperamentally unfit for the office.

The Spectator, a conservative British magazine, echoed part of that sentiment but with a caveat that highlighted the box in which Republican officials find themselves. Yet again, Trump has demonstrated the extent to which he is unsuited to be president, the magazine wrote in an editorial. But yet again we can also see the forces at work that led him to power.

Defenders of the president believe Trumps base will only intensify its anger toward the presidents critics. Saul Anuzis, the former Republican chair in Michigan, said Trump had been goaded by the media into the statements he made Tuesday. I believe there are media folks trying to put him in a position to create forced errors and he does, he said.

He added, I think its an uncomfortable situation [for the party] that unfortunately is not easily walked back because there are a whole lot of people trying to stir it up. Saying he did not believe Trump was a racist or neo-Nazi sympathizer, he said, Weve got a communications issue rather than a political problem [that] is going to be a challenge throughout his presidency.

One strategist said he had just seen the numbers from a survey in a battleground state and that the presidents approval among GOP primary voters stood at a still-impressive 85percent. For elected officials, political survival remains paramount, and they are reluctant to get crosswise with that base.

Elected officeholders have to speak to everyone in their constituency, said the strategist, who, like many, declined to speak on the record so as to offer a candid assessment. Theyre very concerned about the people who will vote for him next time and right now they still [like him].

Another strategist said that, despite the concerns about the president, there are any number of Republicans who consider the party to be in good shape. They say the Republican Partys never been stronger, he said. We have more governors, we have more state legislators, fundraising is great. What are you complaining about?

He added that Republican elected officials either have to feel punished or be punished before they will break significantly with the president. There has to be some sense that there is a price to be paid for this, he said.

A party activist noted that by many traditional metrics, Republicans are strong. Then theres the worst of times, he said. What happened in Charlottesville ... reinforces our biggest problem as a party, which is one word, the perception of intolerance. ... Whether true or not doesnt matter. This reinforced that in a big way.

The internal concerns go well beyond that, however. Party leaders and elected officials more closely tied to the establishment wing of the GOP see a succession of discouraging actions by the president, from his public criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to the firing of former Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff and especially his attacks on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

What does the party do if it appears as though the president doesnt support the leadership in the party? said a Republican activist, who would not agree to be identified. How does the party run if the person who supposedly runs the party doesnt embrace the party? That is a big question. That is a conversation that is out there right now.

The answer is there is no obvious one, as many Republicans underscored in interviews. Some lawmakers anticipate that individual Republicans will maintain greater distance from the president in public settings and in their rhetoric while focusing more intently on a legislative agenda that remains largely unfulfilled. In essence, that would mean they would begin to chart the partys course without particular regard for Trumps priorities.

Trump has made that easier for congressional Republicans with his attacks on McConnell, which deeply offended McConnells Senate colleagues. His more recent attacks on Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and earlier ones aimed at Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) only add to the impetus to operate more independently.

A Republican strategist who is directly engaged in 2018 politics said progress on the GOP agenda, particularly tax cuts, could help to diminish some of the anguish that has been on display this past week. Cutting middle-class taxes and improving the economy? the strategist said. A lot of people will forgive a lot of sins if that happens.

But he conceded that the weeks events could complicate that path to success. I would be very hesitant to say [Charlottesville] has real meaning six months from now, he added. I think where it hurts the most, its just another thing that makes it harder to get the middle-class tax cut done.

One alternative to charting their own course would be for Republicans collectively to issue a sharper rebuke of the president. But that seems challenging, even in the assessment of Republican detractors of the president.

What does it mean to break with the president? asked William Kristol, editor at large of the conservative Weekly Standard and one of Trumps most vocal critics. Its a pretty big move in effect to go into opposition to a president of your own party. Its a very unnatural mode for an elected congressman or senator.

Another GOP strategist put it bluntly: Im not trying to justify what he said, but theres the practical issue. What youre asking is, do Republicans break with him fundamentally? Hes the president. What are you going to do, impeach for this?

Speaking with reporters Friday morning, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) described the position in which Republican lawmakers find themselves. I have a responsibility to do what I do, he has a responsibility to do what he does, and I dont have the constitutional position to be able to challenge him, he said. Were both in the same party, and so I can push on people within my own party, which I think is entirely appropriate, but the presidents the president, and he can make his own statements.

Ed OKeefe, Mike DeBonis and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

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After Charlottesville, Republicans remain stymied over what to do about Trump - Washington Post

Reps. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., Kevin Brady, R-Texas, Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and Dave Schweikert R-Ariz., stand outside Rancho del Cielo in California, where they were crafting tax overhaul plans. Susan Davis/NPR hide caption

Reps. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., Kevin Brady, R-Texas, Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and Dave Schweikert R-Ariz., stand outside Rancho del Cielo in California, where they were crafting tax overhaul plans.

Before any hard battle, it's common to seek a little spiritual guidance.

In preparation for the coming fight this fall to overhaul the entire federal tax code, a group of House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee traveled this week to Rancho del Cielo the ranch of former President Ronald Reagan, outside Santa Barbara, Calif.

The ranch is where Reagan signed one of his major tax cuts into law, and the GOP is working this month to capture some of that Reagan-era magic to deliver a modern tax bill of its own.

"We're focused on, and moving forward, legislation this year bold legislation to reduce taxes on every American and grow jobs and paychecks nationwide," House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said in a speech in front of the ranch.

Brady will write the tax bill that Republicans say could be introduced as early as September. The legislation is on an ambitious timeline. The White House says it wants it done by Thanksgiving. Brady has a slightly more conservative timeline he wants it done by the end of the year.

Details on the bill are scarce, but the "Big Six" negotiators Brady, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn are promising tax cuts for most Americans and businesses that they say will boost U.S. economic growth.

In the meantime, Republicans and their allies in the business community have tried to focus the party's message this month on their tax legislation. One of those allies, the American Action Network, is running millions of dollars worth of TV ads this month in congressional districts across the country to promote the tax bill.

"Thousands of jobs like mine are lost to places like China," says an American worker featured in one ad. "So when I see Congress working to cut taxes for working families and bring jobs back, I know how that matters."

But tax legislation is not dominating the conversation in the country, or even at GOP tax events.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., attended the ranch event. He is a frequent critic of President Trump. Like most congressional Republicans, he is troubled by the president's muddled response in denouncing white supremacists at a rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters.

"I view [Charlottesville] as a low point. Lowest point yet," Curbelo said, "and, hopefully, a turning point in some way."

Brady is more charitable. He has to work directly with the White House to get a tax bill done, but he concedes the effort isn't helped when his message is getting drowned out.

"I wish every segment and every discussion was about tax reform. I would love that conversation to dominate the news," Brady said, "I still think the president has the ability to refocus on tax reform. He's all in on it. He's natural about it. He gets the importance to jobs."

What congressional Republicans say they need to hyperfocus on now is making their case to the public. And no one can drive a message better than a president.

That means less ambiguity about white supremacists and moral equivalence, like Trump did this week when he laid blame on "both sides" in Charlottesville.

"What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt," Trump said in an unwieldy, impromptu press conference at Trump Tower on Tuesday.

Frustrated Republicans still believe Trump is their most powerful communicator, but there is no certainly that he will be able to drive a message on tax legislation. He wasn't able to on health care.

Republicans still largely believe that a tax bill should be easier to pass than their failed effort at health care, because tax cuts are a bedrock issue for the GOP.

Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., says most Republicans are optimistic and excited about the chance to pass a tax bill this fall.

"If we can get this to the floor, it will be the single biggest, most important, powerful thing [Republicans] are ever going to vote on in their lives," Schweikert said. "And so tax reform, I believe, creates its own wind and its own shadow. So, yes, there's always going to be noise, but this is the biggest thing I'll ever vote on."

But first, Republicans need the president to get on message.

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Republicans Plead With Trump To Get On, And Stay On, Message To Pass A Tax Overhaul - NPR

President Donald Trump's racially fraught comments about a deadly neo-Nazi rally have thrust into the open some Republicans' deeply held doubts about his competency and temperament, in an extraordinary public airing of worries and grievances about a sitting president by his own party.

Behind the high-profile denunciations voiced this week by GOP senators once considered Trump allies, scores of other, influential Republicans began to express grave concerns about the state of the Trump presidency. In interviews with Associated Press reporters across nine states, 25 Republican politicians, party officials, advisers and donors expressed worries about whether Trump has the self-discipline and capability to govern successfully.

Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader from Virginia, said Republicans signaled this week that Trump's handling of the Charlottesville protests was "beyond just a distraction."

"It was a turning point in terms of Republicans being able to say, we're not even going to get close to that," Cantor said.

Chip Lake, a Georgia-based GOP operative who did not vote for Trump in the general election, raised the prospect of the president leaving office before his term is up.

"It's impossible to see a scenario under which this is sustainable under a four-year period," Lake said.

Trump's handling of the protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, has shaken his presidency unlike any of the other self-created crises that have rattled the White House during his seven months in office. Business leaders have bolted from White House councils, wary of being associated with the president. Military leaders distanced themselves from Trump's assertion that "both sides" the white supremacists and the counter-protesters were to blame for the violence that left one protester dead. And some members of Trump's own staff were outraged by his combative assertion that there were "very fine people" among those marching with the white supremacists, neo-Nazis and KKK members.

Importantly, the Republicans interviewed did not line up behind some course of action or an organized break with the president. Some expressed hope the recent shakeup of White House advisers might help Trump get back in control of his message and the GOP agenda.

Still, the blistering and blunt statements from some Republicans have marked a new phase. Until now, the party has largely kept its most troubling doubts about Trump to whispered, private conversations, fearful of alienating the president's loyal supporters and upending long-sought GOP policy goals.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a foreign policy ally of the Trump White House, delivered the sharpest criticism of Trump, declaring that the president "has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to" in dealing with crises.

Corker's comments were echoed in the interviews with two dozen Republican officials after Trump expressed his views in Tuesday's press conference. More than half spoke on the record, while the others insisted on anonymity in order to speak candidly about the man who leads their party and remains popular with the majority of GOP voters.

A handful defended Trump without reservation. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, an early supporter of the president, said he "proudly" stands with Trump and said he was succeeding despite a "constant barrage of negative attacks from the left."

But others said recent events had shifted the dynamic between the president and his party.

"I was never one that was convinced that the president had the character to lead this nation, but I was certainly willing to stand by the president on critical issues once he was elected," said Clarence Mingo, a Republican state treasurer candidate in Ohio. "Now, even where good conservative policies are concerned, that progress is all negated because of his inability to say and do the right things on fundamental issues."

In Kentucky, Republican state senator Whitney Westerfield called Trump's comments after the Charlottesville protests "more than a gaffe."

"I'm concerned he seems to firmly believe in what he's saying about it," Westerfield said.

Trump has survived criticism from establishment Republicans before, most notably when GOP lawmakers across the country distanced themselves from him in the final weeks of the campaign following the release of a video in which the former reality television star is heard making predatory sexual comments about women. Many of those same lawmakers ultimately voted for Trump and rallied around his presidency after his stunning victory.

GOP efforts to align with Trump have largely been driven by political realities. The president still commands loyalty among his core supporters, though some recent polls have suggested a slight weakening there. And while his style is often controversial, many of his statements are often in line with those voters' beliefs, including his support after Charlottesville for protecting Confederate monuments.

Brian Westrate, a small business owner in western Wisconsin who is also chairman of the 3rd Congressional District Republican Party, said Trump supporters long ago decided to embrace the unconventional nature of his presidency.

"I don't think that anything has fundamentally changed between now and when the election was," he said. "The president remains an ill-artful, ill-timed speaker who uses Twitter too often. That's not new. ... The president is still the same guy and the left is still the same left."

Some White House officials do privately worry about slippage in Trump's support from congressional Republicans, particularly in the Senate. GOP senators couldn't cobble together the 50 votes needed to pass a health care overhaul and that same math could continue to be a problem in the fall, as Republicans work on reforming the tax code, which is realistically the party's last opportunity to pass major legislation in 2017.

Tom Davis, a Republican state senator representing a coastal South Carolina district, said that when Trump can move beyond the crisis of the moment, he articulates policies that could help the country's economic situation. But Davis said Trump is also part of the reason not much progress has been made.

"To his discredit, he's been maddeningly inconsistent in advancing those policies, which is part of the reason so little has been accomplished in our nation's capital these past six months," Davis said.

Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican strategist who most recently tried to help Jeb Bush win the 2016 GOP presidential primary, said the early optimism some Republicans felt about their ability to leverage Trump's presidency has all but evaporated in the days following the Charlottesville protests.

"Most party regulars have gone from an initial feeling of guarded optimism that Trump would be able to stumble along while Mitch (McConnell) and (Paul) Ryan do the big lifting and pass our Republican agenda to a current feeling of deep frustration and despair," Murphy said.

Barrow reported from Atlanta. AP writers Julie Bykowicz in Washington, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Adam Beam in Frankfort, Kentucky, contributed to this report.

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Republican doubts and anxieties about Trump burst into the open - Chicago Tribune

A decade ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned California Republicans that were dying at the box office, and that we must change to stay relevant. While many criticized and disregarded his message, including me, history has proven him correct.

Change is difficult, especially for political organizations. Parties attract, and are made up of, like-minded people with shared values and vision. They tend to be insular and shun thinking different from their own. As a result, efforts to change them are often painful. We see this playing out in both major parties, here and across the nation.

For California Republicans, change is not an option it is an imperative.

Republican registration today is below 26 percent statewide, and falling. In 39 Assembly districts almost half the state Republican registration is below that of No Party Preference. We are not relevant in presidential or U.S. Senate elections, and havent won a statewide office in more than a decade. Republicans no longer have the luxury of time, inflexible ideology or intraparty squabbles.

Republicans must recognize the importance of being data-driven, broadening our message, and being more inclusive. Most importantly, we must listen to all Californians, not just the shrinking subset of one party. For a minority party, politics is about addition.

Ronald Reagan said it best: I do not view the new revitalized Republican Party as one based on a principle of exclusion. After all, you do not get to be a majority party by searching for groups you wont associate or work with.

California Republicans must overcome the fear of doing something different. We must reach into communities in which we are not present today, listen to different perspectives, and adapt our core principles to a changing state. In short, we must define what it means to be a Republican in California today. We cannot be timid or afraid.

Republicans have a choice: We can remain in a state of denial and continue to lose elections, influence and relevance, or we can move forward boldly to articulate and apply our principles in a way that resonates with a changing California. To me, the choice is clear.

As Assembly Republican leader, I have built genuine relationships with groups that we have ignored for decades, championed policies that reach out to nontraditional Republican groups, and communicated more broadly than any Republican leader in the last generation.

Many of my Assembly Republican colleagues have engaged in issues that are not often associated with us, such as providing for the developmentally disabled, fighting poverty, and addressing climate change through market-based solutions. Moreover, my colleagues and I will continue fighting for an open economy that provides freedom and economic opportunity to everyone equally. To be a viable alternative, Republicans have to provide a vision that resonates with the majority of Californians.

Going forward, Republicans simply cant wait another decade to do things differently. We must step out of our comfort zones. We must listen closely to the states diverse voices. We must acknowledge and embrace our states uniqueness. And we must offer bold policy proposals that improve California and the lives of its residents. This is the challenge before us.

Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes represents the 42nd Assembly District.

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The challenge ahead for California Republicans - OCRegister