One way for a bully to intimidate and control the victims is to induce a level of fear - the victims go into a passive state of superficial compliance - just tell them they are being punished, but you haven't yet decided on the level of punishment.

Mmmm . . . tariffs, yes, nice bully weapon, but how big?

They refused to remove him when he tried to overthrow the government - and now it's gotten worse than anyone could possibly have imagined!

Could have stopped his disastrous tariff war and chose not to.

They need to take a lesson from the Democrats, but they can't do that, either. And of course there are still Mike Johnson and Gym Jordan and other "true believers."