It’s not a secret that Republicans suffered brutal losses in the midterm elections because of Donald Trump’s failing presidency. It’s also not a secret that the devastating results have led to a predictable round of finger-pointing in GOP politics as much of the party shows signs of splintering in the aftermath of an electoral smackdown.

Evidently, as the blame game intensifies, White House officials want to take steps to convince prominent conservatives to keep their fingers pointed away from the Oval Office. The Wall Street Journal reported:

The White House delivered a warning to conservative groups on Thursday: We’re watching you. […]

The White House Office of Public Liaison, which works with outside groups, sent a memo to more than 3,000 conservative organizations that laid out a list of Trump’s accomplishments in office and pledged to prevent newly ascendant Democrats from reversing them. The memo concluded with a sentence that was highlighted in yellow.

“As always, we are monitoring statements, press releases, and media engagements from your organizations,” the memo said.

A White House spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the memo but told the Journal that it wasn’t intended as a threat. Rather, according to the official line, it was just the latest in a series of messages intended to encourage organizations aligned with the White House to continue to push pro-Trump rhetoric.

The trouble is, while the White House Office of Public Liaison has sent similar memos in the recent past, they didn’t include the “we are monitoring” line.

That was new — added two days after Democrats easily won control of Congress.

The heavy-handed phrasing was hardly subtle, but what the White House’s memo didn’t explain is what might happen if the “monitoring” uncover communications that Team Trump disapproves of.

The obvious consequence of the midterm elections is the loss of power: To the extent that the president ever envisioned a legislative agenda for the final two years of his tenure, those plans collapsed on Tuesday night. Trump is the lamest of lame ducks — a woefully unpopular incumbent who has led his party into a wilderness amid increasingly loud GOP chatter about the need for new and different leadership.

Sure, Team Trump is “monitoring” conservatives, looking for those who fail to toe the line for the president. And sure, warnings like these are menacing and authoritarian in tone. But whether Trump and his staff are prepared to acknowledge this or not, the threat also rings hollow: What is it, exactly, that the president is prepared to do to punish those who break ranks? Publish mean posts? Withhold invitations to the next White House holiday party?

Trump expects to maintain his role as the head of the Republican Party and the conservative movement indefinitely. He might soon by surprised, however, to discover just how quickly his influence is evaporating.

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