Cebu_4_2
1st August 2017, 03:17 PM
The end of the Trump-GOP honeymoonhttp://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/01/end-trump-gop-honeymoon.html
THE END OF THE TRUMP-GOP HONEYMOON
The tacit agreement between Donald Trump and the Republican Party was that if the GOP helped him get elected, he would deliver on party priorities.
For the opening months of the Trump administration, this compact served Trump well. Aside from appointing conservatives to key posts, especially Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump also used his executive authority to roll back Obama-era regulations and advance key right-wing agenda items.
When the Russia scandal or presidential intemperance reared up, even those who were deeply skeptical of Trump, could shrug it off and point to concrete accomplishments and, most importantly, the fact that Hillary Clinton wasn’t presently grinding their bones into dust.
Trump never had a “honeymoon” in the traditional sense, but he certainly enjoyed a lengthy grace period with his adopted party. We seem to be coming to the end of that phase.
The Trump-GOP truce has been in jeopardy before, with the president threatening to ditch balky Republicans and carve out a new coalition with his staunchest supporters and Democrats to pass measures on big-ticket items like taxes and infrastructure. When he found no Democrats willing to play, the president quickly reverted to the GOP brand.
But the summer has been unkind to that always-strained relationship.
The most recent fraying follows the ouster of two of the highest ranking Republicans, Sean Spicer and Reince Preibus, from the administration. These two were a big part of Trump’s nod to the GOP establishment, but are now gone with The Mooch.
But more significant than that has been Trump’s sustained assault on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions is well-regarded by Republicans across the ideological spectrum, and Trump’s demeaning treatment of his attorney general has left many wondering where the limit is for the president on attacking his party.
The staff shakeup at the White House and the scourging of Sessions has all been related to the central issue to the president: The ongoing investigation into his 2016 campaign by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
From the moment Trump flamboyantly fired former FBI Director James Comey, members of his own party have been increasingly unwilling to stick their necks out to declare the president innocent of wrongdoing. And with the revelation that the president’s son, son-in-law and top aides met with Kremlin-connected operatives, that unwillingness has turned into almost obduracy.
This, understandably, infuriates Trump, who very plainly sees Mueller as corrupt and the investigation as an attempt by Democrats to strip him of power.
And right at the moment when Trump’s anger over what he sees as his persecution was reaching a crescendo, the Republicans in Congress not only dealt him a stinging defeat on a bill to prop up ObamaCare but simultaneously jammed him up with a set of tough new sanctions against Russia.
Trump, who still refuses to accept his intelligence chiefs’ conclusion that Russia was behind the theft and distribution of embarrassing emails from the Clinton campaign, is essentially being forced into signing legislation that bases new sanctions on that very conduct.
Trump’s second son, Eric, vented his father’s frustrations in an interview with Sean Hannity, saying: “[Donald Trump] is the best fighter in the world. He will do a better job fighting for himself than all of them [Republicans] will do fighting for him. But how much weight does he have to carry by himself?”
That kind of sums up the problem. Republicans are willing to fight for an agenda, but not for Trump himself, whom they have mostly treated as a means to an end.
But Trump now wants personal loyalty, not the conditional or situational loyalty on which he predicated his relationship with his party. As Sessions has discovered, the dangers of such mismatched expectations are severe.
The president has a new, non-partisan chief of staff who is simultaneously trying to enforce order on the chaotic administration (and its chief executive (https://apnews.com/290dfd4f9e364a29ba0e4d7f6e7ad9aa/Kelly-flexes-muscle-his-first-day-on-the-job-at-White-House?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics)) and open up new lines with Democrats (http://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-new-chief-of-staff-john-kelly-is-making-overtures-to-democrats) in a bid to revive Trump’s agenda. And given the degree to which Republicans have increasingly disregarded Trump’s demands, it may be the best option.
But assuming John Kelly finds that Democrats remain staunchly opposed to helping Trump, what promises to lay ahead for the administration and the GOP is intensifying enmity.
The next two months will bring some of the most difficult policy choices so far on debt, spending, national security and, yes, ObamaCare. It is also sure to feature more bombshells about the ongoing investigation.
If Trump and the Republicans in Congress can’t bring back that loving feeling before September, this promises to be a very unhappy breakup for both.
THE END OF THE TRUMP-GOP HONEYMOON
The tacit agreement between Donald Trump and the Republican Party was that if the GOP helped him get elected, he would deliver on party priorities.
For the opening months of the Trump administration, this compact served Trump well. Aside from appointing conservatives to key posts, especially Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump also used his executive authority to roll back Obama-era regulations and advance key right-wing agenda items.
When the Russia scandal or presidential intemperance reared up, even those who were deeply skeptical of Trump, could shrug it off and point to concrete accomplishments and, most importantly, the fact that Hillary Clinton wasn’t presently grinding their bones into dust.
Trump never had a “honeymoon” in the traditional sense, but he certainly enjoyed a lengthy grace period with his adopted party. We seem to be coming to the end of that phase.
The Trump-GOP truce has been in jeopardy before, with the president threatening to ditch balky Republicans and carve out a new coalition with his staunchest supporters and Democrats to pass measures on big-ticket items like taxes and infrastructure. When he found no Democrats willing to play, the president quickly reverted to the GOP brand.
But the summer has been unkind to that always-strained relationship.
The most recent fraying follows the ouster of two of the highest ranking Republicans, Sean Spicer and Reince Preibus, from the administration. These two were a big part of Trump’s nod to the GOP establishment, but are now gone with The Mooch.
But more significant than that has been Trump’s sustained assault on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions is well-regarded by Republicans across the ideological spectrum, and Trump’s demeaning treatment of his attorney general has left many wondering where the limit is for the president on attacking his party.
The staff shakeup at the White House and the scourging of Sessions has all been related to the central issue to the president: The ongoing investigation into his 2016 campaign by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
From the moment Trump flamboyantly fired former FBI Director James Comey, members of his own party have been increasingly unwilling to stick their necks out to declare the president innocent of wrongdoing. And with the revelation that the president’s son, son-in-law and top aides met with Kremlin-connected operatives, that unwillingness has turned into almost obduracy.
This, understandably, infuriates Trump, who very plainly sees Mueller as corrupt and the investigation as an attempt by Democrats to strip him of power.
And right at the moment when Trump’s anger over what he sees as his persecution was reaching a crescendo, the Republicans in Congress not only dealt him a stinging defeat on a bill to prop up ObamaCare but simultaneously jammed him up with a set of tough new sanctions against Russia.
Trump, who still refuses to accept his intelligence chiefs’ conclusion that Russia was behind the theft and distribution of embarrassing emails from the Clinton campaign, is essentially being forced into signing legislation that bases new sanctions on that very conduct.
Trump’s second son, Eric, vented his father’s frustrations in an interview with Sean Hannity, saying: “[Donald Trump] is the best fighter in the world. He will do a better job fighting for himself than all of them [Republicans] will do fighting for him. But how much weight does he have to carry by himself?”
That kind of sums up the problem. Republicans are willing to fight for an agenda, but not for Trump himself, whom they have mostly treated as a means to an end.
But Trump now wants personal loyalty, not the conditional or situational loyalty on which he predicated his relationship with his party. As Sessions has discovered, the dangers of such mismatched expectations are severe.
The president has a new, non-partisan chief of staff who is simultaneously trying to enforce order on the chaotic administration (and its chief executive (https://apnews.com/290dfd4f9e364a29ba0e4d7f6e7ad9aa/Kelly-flexes-muscle-his-first-day-on-the-job-at-White-House?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics)) and open up new lines with Democrats (http://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-new-chief-of-staff-john-kelly-is-making-overtures-to-democrats) in a bid to revive Trump’s agenda. And given the degree to which Republicans have increasingly disregarded Trump’s demands, it may be the best option.
But assuming John Kelly finds that Democrats remain staunchly opposed to helping Trump, what promises to lay ahead for the administration and the GOP is intensifying enmity.
The next two months will bring some of the most difficult policy choices so far on debt, spending, national security and, yes, ObamaCare. It is also sure to feature more bombshells about the ongoing investigation.
If Trump and the Republicans in Congress can’t bring back that loving feeling before September, this promises to be a very unhappy breakup for both.