Trump calls for suspending the Constitution. The silence from Republicans is deafening.

Someone needs to check behind the desk in former President Donald Trump’s office at Mar-a-Lago. I believe Dear Leader may have replaced his ergonomically designed executive office chair with … a throne.

In a post on his social network, Truth Social, Trump either ignorantly or purposefully misinterpreted a report about Twitter’s moderation decisions during the 2020 campaign and wrote: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

Under normal circumstances – which, let’s be honest, haven’t existed for a long time – a former president suggesting that we dismantle and discard the U.S. Constitution would be met with loud and immediate condemnation from everyone on the political spectrum.

Opinions in your inbox: Get exclusive access to our columnists and the best of our columns every day

Republicans react to Trump's 'termination' comments

I mean, Trump is getting into old school banana republic fascist dictatorship territory here. Juan Perón territory. Anastasio Somoza territory.

And in the days since the post there has been condemnation of Trump’s statement. But with few exceptions, only by Democrats.

One of those exceptions is Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, a prominent member of the committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. She tweeted: “Donald Trump believes we should terminate ‘all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution’ to overturn the 2020 election. That was his view on 1/6 and remains his view today. No honest person can now deny that Trump is an enemy of the Constitution.”

It's time: Republicans, our midterm losses are the final straw. Dump Trump now.

Cut the loser loose: Republicans need to give Trump the Hoover treatment

The only other Republican on the committee, Rep. Adam Kinzinger added, “With the former President calling to throw aside the constitution, not a single conservative can legitimately support him, and not a single supporter can be called a conservative.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also rebuked Trump's comment.

I would not describe the Republicans representing Arizona in Congress or those at the top of the Arizona Republican Party as conservatives.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

Arizona Republicans Lake, Ward choose silence over country

I’d call them cultists. Which is why you’ve heard no words of condemnation from people like Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, or state GOP chair Kelli Ward.

And certainly nothing from losing governor candidate Kari Lake, who has been busy spending time in Mar-a-Lago playing Vanna White to Trump’s Pat Sajak.

Trump has tried, unsuccessfully, to backtrack on his comments, but without really backtracking. Which is his way. There are only a couple of reasons for Republicans to remain silent on the topic of Trump calling for the destruction of the Constitution.

Either they agree with him and feel comfortable with the idea of installing him as a monarch, or they are afraid to say publicly that they disagree with him, meaning he already has dictatorial power over them.

What this means for Arizona, sadly, is that their loyalty is not to the Constitution or to their constituents, but to Trump.

EJ Montini is a columnist at the Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, where this column originally ran. Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump says suspend the Constitution, silent Republicans speak volumes