To follow on from my post from yesterday, via Politico: ‘We’ve told them he cannot come’: Republicans grapple with how to handle Trump on the trail.

Many [Republicans] privately admit they’re stuck in an uncomfortable spot: By running too far from Trump, Republicans risk alienating the MAGA faithful or the president himself, whose super PAC is sitting on more than $400 million they desperately need deployed to help them win key races. But if the candidates keep Trump close, they could be dragged down by the president, as the unpopular war in Iran has increased costs for Americans across the country.

So far, they haven’t settled on a unified approach, according to interviews with more than two dozen GOP lawmakers, candidates and operatives. Mostly, they don’t want to talk about it.

When asked in an interview if he wants Trump to campaign in his swing district this fall or spend time elsewhere, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) gave an indirect answer.

“Listen, you know, I’m very happy with our campaign and the things that we’re doing,” he said. “Very confident with our conversations with the voters. I think we’ve got a great campaign plan, and we’re laser-focused on communicating with our constituents and talking about issues that are important to them.”

That is not a politician who wants Trump campaigning for him.

And to my point from yesterday:

Some battleground Republicans have relayed to Trump’s political team that they don’t want him to visit their districts ahead of November, according to four Republican operatives involved in the conversations, granted anonymity, like others in this article, to candidly discuss private strategy and conversations.

And top GOP pollsters have advised some vulnerable Republican incumbents and candidates to not talk about Trump on the campaign trail, or at least limit their direct references to the president, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.

“We’ve told them he cannot come,” said a senior Republican involved in a competitive House GOP race in a district where Trump won by double digits in 2024. “Candidly, he would not be helpful here … I do not believe they would send him without our OK. And if they did, we probably wouldn’t campaign with him.”

I mean, the following dilemma couldn’t have happened to a more deserving party.

And Republicans know the risk of infuriating a president who has historically not taken kindly to members of his own party who break with him.

“Some of the guidance has been, ‘You’re fucked if you mention him too much, and you’re also fucked if you don’t stay in his good graces.’ So that is the problem,” one House Republican in a competitive race said of internal conversations they’d had with pollsters and operatives.

That’s quite a quote.

The piece has a number of responses and examples of both embracing and eschewing Trump.

But, as the piece ends, the following is the truth of it:

the operative said, “running away is a failure” because Trump has become so synonymous with the Republican Party.

“Every cycle people try to do that, and it looks disingenuous. At this point, Trump is baked into everything.”