Too many Republicans see Trump as daddy. They either unconditionally love him or irrationally fear he'll hit them. This mostly refers to officials but it applies to a lot of rank/file folks, too.

Amen. My family lived through three strikes of varying length and while I think the unions and members were mostly all in for it (the strikes largely prevented worst case scenarios), nobody thought of it as anything other than a last resort.

And the admin (illegally) tried to kill LIHeAP.

I kind of thought that's what this is all about until I realized how long ago it was.

Such a dismissal of the risk of tyranny is similar to how many voters were like "Meh, we lived through it before." To both crowds, none of the political drama matters because they felt he'd do what they want. Then Trump rips out the wiring & people are upset, but they can't admit they were swindled.

Understated strengths Trump had was that a) people assumed he was lying and b) they assume most pols lie (of course they generally don't to Trump's degree). All they knew was he was signalling immigration action hard but assumed the details were just rhetoric (lies) to prove how serious he was.

The PPP, too? Damn, the things you learn when Pakistan is in the news.