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Other Trump allies hoping to reclaim the mantle of respectable Republican might choose to follow the Lindsey Graham model. The senators turn from truth-telling Trump critic to loyal acolytetimed for his reelection bid last year in South Carolinaearned him a rash of savage headlines in the political press. But hes already begun his post-Trump rebrand, starting with a speech on the Senate floor after the Capitol riot earlier this month.

Trump and I, weve had a hell of a journey, Graham said in the characteristically cheerful drawl that scans to so many inside the Beltway as candor. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, hes been a consequential president. But today all I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough. Ive tried to be helpful.

Peter Wehner: Some Republicans have finally found a line they wont cross

Grahams implication was that hed cozied up to Trump only to advise him on issues of grave national importand that he was now breaking with the outgoing president on moral grounds. This version of events conveniently ignores the senators hyper-partisan defenses of Trump (he called the first impeachment a lynching in every sense), or his sycophantic sucking up (He beat me like a dog in 2016), or any number of dignity-sapping acrobatics hes performed to stay on the presidents good side. By deciding to denounce Trump after the riot, Grahamlike many of his colleaguescould try to claim that he put country before party (even if it wasnt until the final days of Trumps term).

Terry Sullivan, who ran Marco Rubios presidential campaign in 2016, told me he was unimpressed by this sudden rush to righteous indignation. The newfound outrage from former Trump supporters rings a bit hollow, given how quiet most were during Charlottesville and countless other escapades, he said. Forty-seven months of blind loyalty followed by one month of conscience doesnt earn you much more than the Mick Mulvaney profile-in-courage award.

Sullivan was less certain, though, about whether the revisionism would work. I dont expect the voters will treat them any more kindly than the historiansbut Ive been wrong before. After all, some predicted that the Republicans who worked for George W. Bush, especially the architects of the Iraq War, would be shunned once he left office. Instead, many of them have settled into respectableand lucrativeperches as commentators, lobbyists, and elder statesmen. As long as the cable-news bookers keep calling, redemption is always available.

Like many of the more high-profile figures who worked for the Trump administration, Isgur, the former Justice Department spokesperson, has spent the years since she resigned publicly repenting. She regularly criticizes the president on CNN and in The Dispatch, a publication founded by Never Trump conservatives. Last month, she published an essay in The Washington Post grappling with how she and her colleagues had obscured the reality of a Trump presidency from the public.

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Republicans Are Already Rewriting the Trump Years - The Atlantic