Mitch is Embarassed by trump
On Thursday, the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, pressed ahead with a measure to rebuke Trump for aspects of his foreign policy, specifically the planned military withdrawals from Afghanistan and Syria. And McConnell, embarrassed by Trump’s shutdown ploy, which came over his objections, was reported to have told members that he would be open to a measure to stop such shutdowns from ever being allowed in the future.
This is even before Congress receives a report from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, whose investigation, the acting Attorney General, Matthew Whitaker, told reporters this week, is almost complete. Events may be closing in on the President. Indictments and convictions and the Mueller report, whatever it is and whenever it is delivered, will be harder for Republicans on Capitol Hill to dismiss than much of the bluster that preceded them. Which is why I think the recent shift in the congressional G.O.P.’s mood is significant.
To be clear: these folks may still vote with Trump, they may stick with him to the finish, and they will undoubtedly continue to use him opportunistically for their policy ends. But they do not love him, and many will abandon him if pragmatism and the politics of the moment demand it. This is true not only of the typically treacherous members of Congress, who invariably prioritize their own political survival over their fealty to the President. In the Trump era, even the loyalty of the President’s own men is suspect, another fact we were reminded of this week, by the latest tell-all books to emerge with titillating scenes of internal dysfunction in Trumpworld. “Team of Vipers,” by Cliff Sims, whose bio says he served as “director of White House message strategy” for Trump, is one of the most damning insider accounts yet. Sims is currently on his book tour, saying he was proud to work for Trump while portraying the White House as a pit of self-interested snakes unleashed and encouraged by the President himself. A book that shows the most powerful man in the world demanding that a relatively junior aide help him to make an enemies list of possible leakers on his own staff is not the flattering work of an admirer. No wonder an angry Trump couldn’t be restrained from tweeting vitriol at Sims the other day.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-tr...-that-wall
Another self-professed fan of the President, the former New Jer
On Thursday, the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, pressed ahead with a measure to rebuke Trump for aspects of his foreign policy, specifically the planned military withdrawals from Afghanistan and Syria. And McConnell, embarrassed by Trump’s shutdown ploy, which came over his objections, was reported to have told members that he would be open to a measure to stop such shutdowns from ever being allowed in the future.
This is even before Congress receives a report from the special counsel, Robert Mueller, whose investigation, the acting Attorney General, Matthew Whitaker, told reporters this week, is almost complete. Events may be closing in on the President. Indictments and convictions and the Mueller report, whatever it is and whenever it is delivered, will be harder for Republicans on Capitol Hill to dismiss than much of the bluster that preceded them. Which is why I think the recent shift in the congressional G.O.P.’s mood is significant.
To be clear: these folks may still vote with Trump, they may stick with him to the finish, and they will undoubtedly continue to use him opportunistically for their policy ends. But they do not love him, and many will abandon him if pragmatism and the politics of the moment demand it. This is true not only of the typically treacherous members of Congress, who invariably prioritize their own political survival over their fealty to the President. In the Trump era, even the loyalty of the President’s own men is suspect, another fact we were reminded of this week, by the latest tell-all books to emerge with titillating scenes of internal dysfunction in Trumpworld. “Team of Vipers,” by Cliff Sims, whose bio says he served as “director of White House message strategy” for Trump, is one of the most damning insider accounts yet. Sims is currently on his book tour, saying he was proud to work for Trump while portraying the White House as a pit of self-interested snakes unleashed and encouraged by the President himself. A book that shows the most powerful man in the world demanding that a relatively junior aide help him to make an enemies list of possible leakers on his own staff is not the flattering work of an admirer. No wonder an angry Trump couldn’t be restrained from tweeting vitriol at Sims the other day.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-tr...-that-wall
Another self-professed fan of the President, the former New Jer
