vice president mike pence whose relationship with trump has soured considerably since he and his family were forced into hiding during the capitol siege to publicly declare he would not to invoke the 25th amendment of the constitution to remove trump from officedespite the defections trump remains popular with a significant portion of his political base the presidents remaining allies warn that republicans who cross him publicly risk a conservative backlash in their next electionspublic and private polling shows republican grassroots voters strongly oppose impeachment said jason miller a trump senior adviser any republican senator or congressman voting for impeachment will be held accountable in their next primary electiontrump emerged from his white house fortress for the first time since the riots for a trip to the wall his administration built along the texas border as he left washington he was careful to insist we want no violence but denied any responsibility for the insurrectiononce he reached the border his remarks to a small crowd were fairly muted in the end he spoke for just 21 minutes and spent less than 45 minutes on the ground in what was expected to be the final trip of his presidencybefore leaving he offered an ominous warning to democrats leading the charge to remove him from office be careful what you wish forthat veiled threat came as the nation and members of congress braced for the potential of more violence ahead of bidens inauguration the fbi warned this week of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in washingtoncapitol security officials made the extraordinary decision to require members of congress to pass through metal detectors to enter the house chamber beginning on tuesday although some republicans resisted the new ruleits unclear whether the chaos in washington represents an existential threat to the party but it almost certainly threatens to undermine the gops shortterm political goalsseveral major corporations many of them reliably republican donors have promised to stop sending political donations to any of the 147 republicans who perpetuated trumps false claims of election fraud by voting to reject bidens victory last weekthe fundraising challenge comes at a bad time for the gop history suggests that the republican party as the minority party in washington should regain control of the house or senate in 2022at the same time a collection of ambitious republicans are trying to position themselves to run for the white house in 2024 they are also contending with trumps legacyone of them maryland gov larry hogan reminded reporters on tuesday that hes condemned the trump presidency from the very beginningive been in the same place ive been for the whole four years a lot of people have just changed their position hogan said while vowing not to leave the gop i dont want to leave the party and let these people who did a hostile takeover four years ago take overdespite hogans confidence he is far less popular among trumps loyal base a group likely