Trump’s grip over Republicans hardens as party cleaves to election ‘big lie’

Far from losing influence over the party, critics say, Trump has in fact burrowed far into its DNA so that the two are now all but inseparable

Ron DeSantis was exultant. The way Florida did it I think inspires confidence; I think that's how elections should be run," the state governor told reporters last November. Rather than us be at the centre of a Bush v Gore in 2020, we're now being looked at as the state that did it right."

This boast of a smoothly run election just six months ago makes DeSantis's actions this week all the more curious. The governor suddenly found it necessary to impose sweeping reforms that limit mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes - and signed the new law live on the Fox News network on Thursday with no other media allowed.