Republicans are starting their life in the Senate minority mired in a civil war over the future of the GOP and former President Donald Trump’s role in the party.

Trump’s scathing attack on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday exposed rifts that could dash the GOP’s hopes of retaking the Senate in 2022 if they are allowed to fester.

Now, the GOP leader has to hold together a fractured conference and guide Senate candidates through difficult primaries while holding onto seats in states Trump lost last year.

6 Capitol riot and Trump firing back in personal terms, Senate Republicans have reacted by trying to defuse the situation — a sign of recognition that they need Trump loyalists and more traditional Republican voters to stick together for future success.

Following Trump's call for Republicans to move on from McConnell, POLITICO on Wednesday reached out to all 16 Republican senators running for reelection in 2022 to ask if they supported the Kentuckian as majority leader.

Other Republicans, meanwhile, spent Wednesday decrying the conflict Trump had stoked the day before but did not criticize the former president, instead emphasizing his role in the GOP.

Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the other 2022 Republican to express support for McConnell as leader, said Wednesday on Fox News, adding that Trump is “the most powerful political figure on either side.”.

“When you look at the polls, if you take a look at Republicans that voted for Trump, would they rather have Mitch McConnell or Donald Trump head of the party — it’s not even a contest,” Sen.

Those spats resolved well ahead of the 2018 midterms, but McConnell made clear in an interview with POLITICO last week that he would back candidates regardless of whether they are supported by Trump.

“I think that whether he likes it or not, former President Trump is going to be very impactful on at least Senate races — maybe House races as well — for 2022,” Walker said in an interview.

But Walker said he would be proud to have both Trump and McConnell supporting his campaign, though he insisted it was too early to say whether he’d support McConnell as GOP leader.

Democrats looking to expand their incredibly narrow Senate majority in 2022 think they can benefit from the push-and-pull between Trump and McConnell, which they see as dividing the party in key battlegrounds where control of the chamber will be decided.

It wasn’t until after McConnell published a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week castigating Trump that the former president decided to hit back at the Senate GOP leader.

In poking Trump, they argue, McConnell put Republicans in a box, forcing them to choose between Trump — who maintains an iron-like grip on the party’s base — and McConnell