WASHINGTON — Months after Donald Trump left the Oval Office, Republicans at the state and local level are cementing their loyalty to the one-term president, assuring that Trump will remain the party's future despite his November defeat.
From espousing his discredited election conspiracy theories to threatening to secede, state and local officials are increasingly leaving aside community issues to reflect Trump's ongoing hold of the national GOP.
The extension of Trump's dominance in the GOP down to local leaders compounds the party's consolidation behind an uncompromisingly right-wing, grievance-oriented politics that centers conspiracy theories and threats to democratic legitimacy.
"What is historically new is the orientation of all local and state politics towards distant national and ideological issues. This is polarizing and disabling," said Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale University who studies authoritarianism. "Local and state government is meant to handle local and state issues."