‘We Did This for <em>This</em> Man?’

The former Arizona Senator, Jeff Flake, couldn't stop laughing on the day after the midterm elections. Flake, who had been a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, remarked that the Republican Party had undergone a significant transformation. He believed that the party had finally realized the consequences of their alignment with Trump, asking, "What did we get out of this?"

Flake pointed to the party's ballooning national debt, damaged trade deals, and strained relationships with allies as some of the downsides. However, he acknowledged that the Supreme Court now had a conservative majority, though he attributed this to Senator Mitch McConnell's influence rather than Trump. Flake blamed the party's current state on Trump's influence, citing Trump's "sickening" crony capitalism and ongoing support for his fraudulent claims about the 2020 election results.

He noted that many Republican politicians, like former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, had previously dismissed Flake's criticism as self-defeating. Flake expressed skepticism about the likelihood of statues being erected in Trump's honor, stating, "I'm not sure many statues are going to be erected to anybody who was part of this."

Despite the gloating from some Republicans who had criticized Trump, Flake saw it as a long-overdue vindication for those who had warned against the dangers of aligning with the former president.