It's Trump's Party and I'll Cry if I Want To

Based on analysis of a multi-wave national sample panel of Republican identifiers, we show the increasing coherence among rank and file Republicans around evaluations of Donald Trump. Differences between Republicans who-preferred Trump for the GOP nomination and those who preferred another-candidate (but, unlike the Never Trump group who said they could not support him in the general election if he won the nomination) are muted by the general election and 2018 waves. While "Never-Trumpers" in the nomination wave maintain their affective distance from Trump in the general election and 2018 waves, their evaluations become less negative. Our analysis suggests that Republicans' favorability toward Trump increasingly aligned with their attitudes toward the Republican Party and their support for Trump's effort to build a southern-border wall.