GOP senator: "Too difficult to say" whether party will support Trump in 2020

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told MSNBC that it is “too difficult to say” whether Trump will be the nominee.

The negative assessment comes as Trump is making an extremely early move to start putting together a political operation ahead of the election, holding fundraisers and deploying resources to key swing states more than 1,100 days before the 2020 Election Day. Trump is already sending operatives to North Carolina, even though his base of political strength has been the south.

Trump is also certainly aware that Mike Pence is already putting together a political operation, including forming his own PAC and meetings with top donors.

It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a president to be in this precarious of a position after only seven months in office. But as Collins told MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson, it’s clear Trump is already in trouble — with his own party.

JACKSON: He’s already running for re-election, so what happens next?

COLLINS: Well, it’s far too early to tell now, there’s a long ways between now and that point.

JACKSON:  Do you think he will end up the party’s nominee in 2020?

COLLINS: It’s too difficult to say.

Trump is very unpopular, and has major failures on both domestic and foreign policy, with no major legislative accomplishments under his belt.

While Republicans have criticized him, their opposition to him has still been mostly muted as they continue to hold out hopes he will enact their destructive agenda. His remarks defending white supremacists may be so politically toxic that the party decides to seriously consider its options before the 2020 race.

Republicans are also aware that there could be major fallout as the results of the ongoing probes into Russian election meddling circle Trump and his closest allies. A nominee free of the taint of Russian influence could be the party’s choice — which would rule out the obviously complicit Pence.

The party chose Trump, and is now dealing with the fallout of that fateful decision. It doesn’t look good for him or them.