I wrote at Politico today about the reluctance some Republicans still feel about saying Donald Trump’s name when criticizing him:

Donald Trump’s continued outrages and provocations are sure to bring swift condemnation by his fellow Republicans — of some unnamed person.
Republicans are increasingly willing to call out Trump as his strength wanes, although there is still, on the part of many in the party, a strange hesitancy to say his name. They will criticize him obliquely or, at most, refer to him as the “former president.”
The man who has spent a lifetime putting his name on everything can still keep it off the lips of people appalled by something he has said or done. It’s a GOP taboo that became so deeply ingrained during his presidency and the immediate aftermath that it will only lift slowly, if ever.