Donald Trump seems to be hurting the Republican Party more than he is helping it.

For fans of the hit television series, Downton Abbey, there was a clear moment in the show when the veils of period-perfect costumes and gorgeous sets were torn away to reveal a bitter truth.

In season three (spoiler alert) main character “Matthew Crawley,” having only just survived World War I, is tragically killed in an automobile accident driving home from the hospital, after holding his firstborn infant son in his arms for the first — last, and only — time.

That’s when audiences knew: Downton Abbey, for all its historical grandeur and attention to detail, was nothing but a glorified soap opera. It was a modern-day Dallas with better clothes. All My Children without Susan Lucci.

It was far from the genteel Jane Austen novel many thought they were getting; instead, audiences were getting Oliver Twist.

Isn’t it time for Republican Party voters to reexamine what they thought they were getting, and what they are actually getting, from former-President Donald Trump?

American politics has been turned into one big reality television show grudge match.

The stakes are higher than Survivor, the arguments are pettier than Big Brother, and there is more constant drama than Flavor of Love and Jersey Shore put together.

Republican voters wanted C-SPAN; they got The Jerry Springer Show.

And no one can turn the channel: The same show is on every channel.

Republican voters may want the Trump Administration back; a strong economy, energy independence, and a secure border.

Do they need the constant drama of Donald Trump? More importantly, can the Republican Party withstand it? Because Trump certainly doesn’t seem to be helping the Republican Party win elections these days.

An unavoidable truth has become clear in the wake of the 2022 midterm election: The Democratic Party has learned how to win with Donald Trump; the Republican Party has not.

Trump, it must also be admitted, is often helping the left win.

It’s true that Republicans haven’t gotten a fair shake from the press since Ronald Reagan. Mild-as-milquetoast Sen. Mitt Romney was smeared as a racist who would, “Put ya’ll back in chains!” as Joe Biden told a group of Black voters in 2012, putting on a fake Southern accent. Romney was even roundly savaged for his innocuous “binders of women”.

The media’s misogynistic treatment of Sarah Palin should be a subject of great shame to journalists, though, of course, it isn’t.

The amount of journalistic ink dedicated to President Donald J. Trump could fill the Grand Canyon. If all presidents, and all politicians, got that level of voracious attention from the press, this would be a very different country with very different leaders.

Yes, Donald Trump was willing to stand up to the Democratic Party press machine that has been chewing up good, solid, moderate Republican candidates like Senators Romney and McCain and spitting them out for over a decade.

And Trump lost.

Worse, he often lost from own goals more than anything else. At times, he seemed to be trying to fail.

Take Trump’s recent dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes.

Kanye West seems to be having a serious mental breakdown before our collective eyes at the moment — perhaps due to his recent and very bitter public divorce — and is currently in the process of committing career suicide via anti-Semitism.

Nick Fuentes is a self-avowed white supremacist, that is to say, also probably suffering from a mental defect of some kind and best avoided at all costs.

Why would Donald Trump choose exactly now to invite Kanye West over for dinner? Did Kanye just release a new hit album playing on repeat at the Trump house? No.

Did Trump and Kayne have urgent business to discuss together? Likely not.

What could have been so urgent as to assume such a level of social liability — for no clear benefit — and right after announcing for President?

And if West and Trump did have urgent business to discuss, why not an office meeting? Why not meet through intermediaries — especially now? Most urgent business dealings include no shortage of lawyers, representatives, and agents anyway.

It’s almost as if Donald Trump were intentionally trying to hurt himself, and by extension, the entire Republican Party and everyone in it, including every Republican Party voter.

Is Donald Trump going to somehow “win” one against the dread corporate media monstrosity with this particular stunt?

How could he?

The whole thing is a huge, staged trap and Donald Trump probably didn’t haphazardly stumble into it. He may not have known who Nick Fuentes was, many don’t. But Kanye West’s most recent — most bizarre and scariest — public breakdown yet has been very hard to miss.

The Democratic Party and their many acolytes in the press have figured out how to use Donald Trump; they will wield this latest episode with the cudgel-like relentlessness demonstrated so often heretofore — if only against Donald Trump.

The Republican Party has not figured out a way to turn incidents like this into a win for the party; likely because there just isn’t one. It is indefensible. And it isn’t the first time.

If your quarterback starts scoring touchdowns for the other team, is he really your quarterback?

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)