The New York Times reports Donald Trump “blames Democrats as major push to repeal health law fails.”

But Congressional Republicans like Mark Walker (R-NC) don’t seem confused by the Pretender-in-Chief’s fake news:

You can’t pretend and say this is a win for us.

But of course, that’s exactly what Donald Trump is doing:

The best thing that could happen is exactly what happened — watch.

Repeal and replace has been the mantra of the Republican party for the past seven years. Yes, it was always a thin policy veneer over their racism fueled animosity for Barack Obama,¹ but it was waved like a bloddy flag. And now it’s meaningless.

Has Trump ripped-out the ideological foundation of the G.O.P. or did it never exist in the first place?

Kevin Cramer (R-ND) admits:

We have to do some soul-searching internally to determine whether or not we are even capable of functioning as a governing body.

Externally, the answer to Kevin Cramer’s question is pretty obvious and it has been for years. Trump is just shining a light. Hell, the existence of Trump himself was made possible in large part by the intellectual emptiness of the party.