Why Obama thinks he can peel Republicans off Trump

A plea to Republicans of good conscience

Can President Obama change minds?
(Image credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

There were always two ways to think about Donald Trump's relationship to the Republican Party.

The first is that Trump is an aberration, someone who seized control of a party he never truly belonged to with a combination of celebrity, good timing, and the kind of irresistible magnetism we usually associate with car crashes or giant tire fires.

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.