Yeah, under normal circumstances parties should try to win every election, poisoned chalice or not, but long term it would have been better for the Republicans if they had lost, especially if they managed to keep senate control. 2018 would have been a bloodbath and in 2020 we probably would be looking at president Cotton (who actually is interested in conservative policies unlike Trump) with 58+ seats in the senate.
Perpetual war is a conservative policy?
I was referring to things like medicare/social security reform, which obviously are not going to pass under Trump. Trump only cares about his wall and meaningless executive orders. I'm not saying that I'm a huge Cotton fan btw (he's still much better than Trump though).