For Better or Worse, Trump and the GOP Need Each Other

If that happened, Republicans would surely—and probably instantly—regret it. Trump would be weakened and isolated. And the Republican Party would not only have left the president, it would split, with many Republicans siding with Trump. The whole thing would be an unprecedented and unnecessary disaster.

Chances are, a separation won’t happen, though Trump seems to be laying the groundwork for one by airing in public his complaints about congressional Republicans. And the Never Trump crowd regards his conduct as evidence of the need for a divorce.

Trump has attacked Republican senators as if they are conspiring against him, handed out orders to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that haven’t been followed, and issued threats to shut down the government that congressional Republicans have ignored. He thinks Republicans are a drag on his presidency.

Since Trump was elected, the Never Trumpers (who are mostly Republicans) have insisted he’s unfit to be president. They have a growing team of allies. Democrats, the elite media, and liberal and left-wing groups echo their calls for Republicans to spurn Trump and run Congress independently of the White House.

That’s an unworkable idea. A breakup between Trump and Republicans would not only be wrong, it would be catastrophic for the GOP and its agenda. Trump would be tempted to join Democrats and back their liberal programs. Where else would he go? Republicans would be left with the job of blocking those initiatives, their own agenda having died.

At the moment, the need for Trump and congressional Republicans to stick together is crucial. Though they failed to replace Obamacare, they agree on the next two issues in importance, tax reform and filling the federal judiciary with more conservative judges. If a second Supreme Court vacancy occurs, Trump has agreed to choose a nominee from a list of conservative jurists and lawyers. He has already begun stacking the lower courts with conservatives.

But the agreement on judges and the tax bill worked out by the Gang of Six of White House officials and Republican leaders in Congress could fall apart, causing the Trump recovery to lose its steam.

The press has been especially keen on sowing the seeds of division. Trump’s tweets slapping McConnell have led to a spate of stories about their relationship. House Speaker Paul Ryan has never been a Trump favorite. And the media will hop on any friction between Trump and the congressional leaders.

But McConnell and Ryan recognize how critical teamwork is. McConnell is set on overhauling the federal courts. For that, he needs Trump. Ryan’s dream is to reform the tax code while cutting taxes for the first time since 1986. He needs Trump and his aides for that.

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In Alexandria, Virginia, where I live, virtue-signaling is a popular pastime. If you take the signals at face value—and by signals I mean yard signs—you’d think the city’s residents are committed to ending hate. They hate hate. And they’re bubbling over with virtue. The city is run by Democrats and Donald Trump got a pitiful 17 percent in the election. Marco Rubio won the Republican primary.

But virtue isn’t the only thing that’s been signaled. My grandson Luke Kurcina went for ice cream the other day and spotted this in a car window: “Abort Trump … Screw Trump and Screw You for Voting for Him.” Since many front yards across the city feature a sign with the lone word “Kindness,” one must assume the car was from out of town.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona may have deserved the pardon Trump has given him. I flinched, however, when I read the first graf of the New York Times story on the pardon. It referred to Arpaio as “a national symbol of the divisive politics of immigration.”

Ok, but what about those sanctuary cities that refuse to hand over to federal authorities illegal immigrants who’ve been charged with committing crimes? What are these cities if not symbols of divisive politics? Yet the mainstream press treats them as centers of hope, empathy, and confronting power with truth. If the Times ever called the proud-of-themselves sanctuaries divisive, I missed it. Just a guess, but I suspect sanctuary cities are brimming with people who hate hate.

We don’t have open borders, but those cities pretend we do. Anyone who wanders across the border into the U.S. is entitled to stay and, heaven forbid, not be deported. This doesn’t increase support for immigrants. It builds support for Trump.

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While Trump was in a pardoning mood, he should have corrected an injustice and pardoned Scooter Libby. President George W. Bush could have wiped away Libby’s conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame affair. But he failed to do so.

Libby was Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff and an adviser to Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was accused of lying about being surprised that a newsman knew of Ms. Plame’s CIA connection. Since his trial, it’s become clear he wasn’t lying. He was innocent.

In 2010, Bush told a group of newsmen he still wondered why the case was brought against Libby. “My view is that it would be interesting to get an explanation as to why the case went forward,” Bush said. But there is one. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald didn’t want his investigation to come up empty handed after failing to develop a case against Cheney or other Bush aides.

Trump could check a lot of boxes by pardoning Libby. He could right a wrong. He could get credit for doing what Bush should have done but didn’t. He could make a statement against special prosecutors and point a finger at special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether his campaign colluded with Russians in last year’s presidential race. He could take a swipe at Bush.