--- title: Donald Trump: Jeff Flake Accuses Republicans of 'Denial' description: Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake criticized fellow Republicans for maintaining "an unnerving silence as instability has ensued" under President Trump canonical: https://time.com/4881786/donald-trump-jeff-flake-gop-denial/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-01T01:17:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:48:42.145Z article:section: Politics og:title: GOP Senator Jeff Flake Accuses Party of 'Unnerving Silence' og:description: Under President Trump og:url: https://time.com/4881786/donald-trump-jeff-flake-gop-denial/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fa2c4110e2ff62/6988d7e7cf40a826edc48c72/jeff-flake-donald-trump-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) Holds Town Hall In Mesa, Arizona og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: GOP Senator Jeff Flake Accuses Party of 'Unnerving Silence' twitter:description: Under President Trump twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fa2c4110e2ff62/6988d7e7cf40a826edc48c72/jeff-flake-donald-trump-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republican Senator Jeff Flake Accuses GOP of 'Unnerving Silence' Under President Trump  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 1, 2017 1:17 AM UTC  Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake at the Mesa Convention Center on April 13, 2017 in Ariz. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake at the Mesa Convention Center on April 13, 2017 in Ariz.Ralph Freso—Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 1, 2017 1:17 AM UTC Arizona Sen. [Jeff Flake](http://time.com/4864307/jeff-flake-deedra-abboud-arizona-senate-race/) on Monday [criticized fellow Republicans](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442) for maintaining “an unnerving silence as [instability](http://time.com/4881686/donald-trump-white-house-chaos-poll/) has ensued” under Donald Trump’s presidency. “To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties. And tremendous powers of denial,” he wrote in an [essay Politico](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442) published Monday. Flake — whose book, _Conscience of a Conservative_, will be released Tuesday — directly criticized Trump for his “seeming affection for strongmen and authoritarians” and for his administration’s denial of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. “If this was our Faustian bargain, then it was not worth it,” Flake said of Republicans winning the White House and both houses of Congress in the 2016 election. “If ultimately our principles were so malleable as to no longer be principles, then what was the point of political victories in the first place?” Read Flake’s full essay [here](http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/31/my-party-is-in-denial-about-donald-trump-215442). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4881786/donald-trump-jeff-flake-gop-denial/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4881786/donald-trump-jeff-flake-gop-denial/"},"headline":"Republican Senator Jeff Flake Accuses GOP of 'Unnerving Silence' Under President Trump","datePublished":"2017-08-01T01:17:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:48:42.145Z","description":"\"If this was our Faustian bargain, then it was not worth it\"","url":"https://time.com/4881786/donald-trump-jeff-flake-gop-denial/","keywords":["Congress","Senate","Arizona","Donald Trump","Jeff Flake","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fa2c4110e2ff62/6988d7e7cf40a826edc48c72/jeff-flake-donald-trump-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24fa2c4110e2ff62/6988d7e7cf40a826edc48c72/jeff-flake-donald-trump-essay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sen. 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