A felony Real Estate guy from New York on his second go-around as President buoyed by a win to get job again thought he could run one a Congress controlled by ‘His’ party….
Yup!…
That was from the starting line….
But?
As the guy keeps pushing to get WHATEVER he wants irregardless of norms, rules , or even the law?
He HAS worried lawmakers in Washington, who have to run again, now, and after he leaves the stage….
Media screams of him ‘ruling’ America….
Polling numbers beginning to drop….
Hiring people for loyalty vs political acumen ….
These things and More have begun to rob him of his support across the board….
Always one to charge forward (except with foreign adversaries that just wear him out) Donald now find himself wresting with the bear of the American political system that WAS designed to do EXACTLY what it doing now….
Share power in a way that does NOT allow one person operate as a KING….
Donald IS , by disregarding the rules of the game, hurting himself politically and pushing not just the Federal judges against him, and now?
Politician’s of his own party…. least they become irrelevant and out of their jobs….
I forgot the part about coming to their senses for some of them in his party….
In the end….
It IS obvious that Donald John Trump lives and operates in Another Reality….
It’s gonna cost him and ‘His’ Party….
Amen…
New poll numbers show his approval rating has hit a second-term low. He is weighing whether to restart a bombing campaign in an unpopular war against Iran. Gas prices are high and inching higher heading into Memorial Day weekend. And his grip over Republican lawmakers is beginning to slip after he proposed a pair of deeply unpopular spending items, prompting an unusual revolt from the Senate.
When faced with such a backlash ahead of midterm elections, many politicians would pivot, redirecting their focus to issues they are on stronger footing with.
But Mr. Trump has decided to double down, presenting himself as politically all-powerful even in the face of indications that he is not.
Over the years, Mr. Trump has often appeared to have an air of invincibility. He survived assassination attempts and won re-election despite being under multiple criminal indictments. He has successfully exacted retribution on many a perceived enemy. Now, with less than three years left in office, he seems comfortable burning whatever political capital he has in order to leave his legacy, even if it drags his party down in the process.
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“There’s a boiling point here,” said Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University. “Of course, the boiling over, it’s in part because Trump doubles down. He rarely admits that maybe he needs to backtrack a little.”
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Another dynamic at play in the Trump White House is a lack of dissenting voices to some of the president’s most extreme ideas.
In Mr. Trump’s first term, some of the president’s most radical ideas were checked by aides like John F. Kelly, the Trump White House’s longest-serving chief of staff; Jim Mattis, Mr. Trump’s first defense secretary; and Gary Cohn, an economic adviser.
But those men are long gone, and their positions have been filled mostly by people who are true believers.
Underscoring that point, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, this week defended the so-called weaponization fund, even as critics called it a “slush fund” that could give payouts to Jan. 6 rioters….
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At a political rally Friday in Rockland County, N.Y., Mr. Trump boasted about the recent victories in Republican primaries in which challengers he backed took out incumbent lawmakers who had crossed him.
“We knocked out a bad senator from Louisiana,” Mr. Trump said to cheers. “We knocked out everybody,” he added.
Left unsaid was that Mr. Trump needed the votes of the Republicans he opposed.
Ms. Binder said she took Mr. Trump at his word when he argued last year that he had little further use for Congress, a suggestion that he could enact most of his agenda by circumventing lawmakers. She said that the president was thinking in larger terms about continuing to control the G.O.P. after his presidency, and what kind of legacy, historically and physically, he could leave behind. She pointed to his push to build a triumphal arch in Washington.
“He’s focused on the arch. I think he’s focused on his own personal legacy. He’s focused on vengeance,” she said. “He doesn’t have a legislative agenda, so does he really need a Republican Senate?”….
Hmmmm?
….Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), called the idea “stupid on stilts” when he spoke with reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.
The following day, he complained on social media about “stupid stuff” that was hurting the party’s chances in November’s midterms — including “using billions of taxpayer dollars to compensate convicted felons and thugs who attacked police.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), speaking on his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz” on Friday, said that a meeting between skeptical GOP senators and Trump’s acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday, largely about the fund, had been “one of the roughest meetings that I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate. There were a lot of Republican senators who were just pissed.”
The compensation fund sits alongside other efforts that give ammunition to Trump detractors who contend he has taken his eye off the issues that matter to the general public. The president’s new White House ballroom and his proposal for a large monument — which critics have nicknamed the “Arc de Trump” — are also part of this narrative.
Veteran GOP pollster Whit Ayres told this column that Trump was facing “the greatest challenge of his time in office, in either his first or second term.”
Ayres contended that Trump’s overall job approval had fallen so steeply that he had “broken through” what used to be seen as the floor of his support.
According to the polling average maintained by The Hill’s data partner Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), Trump is now 20 points underwater, with his performance winning the backing of 39 percent of Americans and the disapproval of 59 percent….
More…