Will allegiance to Trump boost or doom the Republican Party?

The party is ostracising internal Trump critics like Liz Cheney, cementing the idea that it’s Trump or bust for the GOP.

US House Republicans’ swift sacking of Representative Liz Cheney, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, from her leadership post as the party’s conference chairwoman on Wednesday is the clearest signal yet that the GOP is pledging strict allegiance to Trump. The vast majority of Republican leaders have made it clear in the months following Trump’s departure from the White House that they believe the former president still has coattails they can ride to electoral victory in next year’s midterms and, possibly, reclaim control of the House and Senate. “If you try to drive him out of the Republican party, half the people will leave,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of Trump, told Fox News on Tuesday. “It doesn’t mean you can’t criticise the president. It means the Republican Party cannot go forward without President Trump being part of it.”