Some Senate Republicans apparently want it known that they’re opposed to the former guy running for president again, or at least want him to hold off on announcing if he’s running until after the 2022 midterms. Because they think he would hurt Republicans in the midterms. These Republican senators, profiles in courage, want that to be known anonymously, however.

“I think we’re better off when he’s not part of any story,” one nameless senator told The Hill, adding that most of the GOP conference agrees. “He’s a clinical narcissist. He threw away the election in the debate with Biden and he threw away the Senate out of spite,” the lawmaker said. The “throwing away the Senate” remark is about the Georgia runoffs in January, when Trump was too busy inciting a violent insurrection to do much about the last two Senate races.

“The way my colleagues see it, he’s an asset in the primaries if he’s with you and then it creates challenges in the general election,” another GOP senator said. “He’s different than any political person that I’ve ever known.” This one is up for reelection in 2022, so chances are they have a wary eye out on whether a primary is emerging for them or not, and crossing their fingers that they fly under Trump’s radar.

One maybe-2022 senator, Ron Johnson, was willing to put his name on his quote, but he wasn’t going to say any real thing about what he thought of Trump running again. “The 2022 election ought to be about the Biden administration and its rolling disasters so anything that would detract from the public being focused on what Democratic governance is doing to this country would be ill-advised,” Johnson said. He’s not saying an announcement would detract, just that, you know, stuff might.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, however, the longest serving Republican senator at eight terms (and age 88) is happy to embrace Trump as he seeks another six-year term. Grassley announced last month that he’ll be back, and appeared over the weekend at an Iowa rally with the former guy to accept his endorsement. “I was born at night, but not last night,” Grassley said following Trump’s endorsement. “So if I didn’t accept the endorsement of a person that’s got 91% of the Republican voters in Iowa, I wouldn’t be too smart. I’m smart enough to accept that endorsement.” Not exactly an embrace, there.

Only Lindsey Graham—and OF COURSE Lindsey Graham—would full-on embrace Trump. “I’ve been pushing the idea that a Draft Trump movement would be well received,” Graham told The Hill. As if Trump had to be wooed. “I think he was a good president on the things I care about,” he said. “He’s going to have to deal with the problems in 2020 but, yeah, I think he’d be the most viable candidate right now.”

Lord help us all.

Interestingly, another Republican senator who thinks he can be president some day, Tom Cotton, is cautiously trying to send a message that he “in league with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, was maneuvering behind the scenes to derail the outgoing president’s effort to remain in office, and marginalize those Republicans who were abetting him.” That’s what he told David Drucker, reporter for the conservative Washington Examiner, who has a new book out about Trump, like everyone else. They were acting so deeply behind the scenes that you would be forgiven to think that in four years’ time, Cotton and McConnell did not do one damn thing to try to keep Trump from being Trump.

But sure, in 2024 a nation is going to turn its lonely eyes to … Tom Cotton. Yeah, you go with that, guys. He’d have better luck if the majority of his colleagues in the Senate weren’t either too scared of Trump to go on the record suggesting he stay out of their way, or weren’t his faithful lackeys.