GOP/SUPPORTERS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s tumultuous past week has widened rifts in his party, between those who vocally support the president’s combative style and others who bridle at it, according to interviews with GOP officials and supporters across the country.
Mr. Trump has long been a polarizing force among members of his party, but for the first several months of his tenure, the GOP was largely united by a shared desire to make the most of his election and the party’s total control of the government for the first time in a decade.
After a week that included the president attacking his attorney general, the collapse of a GOP health bill, a surprise effort to bar transgender people in the military and a White House staff shakeup, divisions that were largely set aside at the start of 2017 have emerged anew.
‘Particularly among some of my former colleagues in the House, there is a frustration and lament about opportunities squandered in what should be a prime time for a GOP legislative agenda,’ said former Republican Rep. David Jolly of Florida.”
-Siobhan Hughes and Thomas M. Burton, “Donald Trump Deepens GOP Divide,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 30, 2017 07:41pm