Trump Divorces the GOP Congress - WSJ Editorial
A biographer says Donald Trump once told him that he informed second wife Marla Maples he was seeking a divorce by leaking it to the New York Post. Mr. Trump now seems to be using Twitter to tell Republicans in Congress that he’s divorcing them, or at least seeking a trial separation, and for its own self-preservation the GOP Congress is going to have to find different living arrangements.
Mr. Trump has made common cause with the Congressional GOP in his first seven months on a few issues that have been his rare legislative successes— Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and deregulation. But the lesson he seems to have taken from the Senate health-care failure is that he should distance himself from Republicans on Capitol Hill. No matter that he never gave a speech selling reform and even said amid the Senate debate that the House bill was “mean.” Thanks, mate.
Bashing Republicans won’t help him pass his fall agenda, but Mr. Trump may think he needs to protect himself politically by making Congress his foil. This would explain Mr. Trump’s recent gibes at Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the Senate’s health-care failure. On Thursday he broadened the indictment to include blaming Mr. McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, in advance, for trouble raising the federal debt ceiling when Congress returns in September.
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All of which means that Republicans in Congress need to think of themselves as governing with an independent President—if they don’t already. This doesn’t mean joining Democrats as “the Resistance.” But it does mean acting on their own to fulfill their legislative promises with or without the support of Mr. Trump. If the President goes his own way, at least Republicans can point to votes for legislation that they put on his desk.
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On funding the government, Republicans in Congress will get no benefit from a shutdown fight over building a border wall. Two-thirds of the country doesn’t support an expensive and largely symbolic wall, and even most Republicans who do won’t like a shutdown to pass it. The GOP should pass a budget that has as many of its priorities as possible, and more money for border enforcement ought to satisfy the immigration restrictionists. The physical wall is Mr. Trump’s personal preoccupation. He can veto a bill without it, but then he’d be responsible for the shutdown.
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Legislative success—especially on tax reform—is the best way Republicans can protect themselves from any Trump undertow in 2018. They need a record to change the campaign subject from whatever the President is tweeting a year from now when he might be contemplating a political affair with Nancy Pelosi.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-divorces-the-gop-congress-1503616084
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