Apparently, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse figured he would embarrass Scott Pruitt out of a job. The Rhode Island lawmaker brought audio and visual aids to a Tuesday committee hearing to confront the Environmental Protection Agency administrator. The big reveal? Two years ago, Pruitt didn’t think Donald Trump would make a good president.
“I believe that Donald Trump in the White House would be more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama, and that’s saying a lot,” Pruitt said during a 2016 radio interview, summing up what almost everyone was already thinking. Two years later, no one should care — least of all the president.
The whole gotcha moment falls apart in context. Pruitt was working overtime to keep Trump out of the White House because Pruitt was serving as a policy advisor to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
He could give Trump a perfectly fine answer: I was doing my job. Trying to get a win. Cynical? Yes. But is Trump bothered by cynicism? Trump is willing to let bygones be bygones.
Anyone who doubts that must explain who Trump keeps on speed dial. Trump regularly texts Sen. Ted Cruz. Among other things, the Texas Republican called Trump: 1) utterly amoral, 2) a serial philanderer, and 3) a pathological liar. The two get along just fine now. The same now goes for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who called his golf buddy “a race-baiting, xenophobic bigot.” Since Trump became president, almost all his old enemies have become new allies.
There isn’t anything hypocritical or craven about that. Accepting a job in the administration or lobbying the White House for influence isn’t just pragmatic politics. It is prudent.
If Pruitt really thought Trump was at risk of ushering in a post-constitutional era, why wouldn’t he accept the job at the EPA? At least as part of the administration, he could check some of the largesse and excess of Trump. In fact, Pruitt’s work has mostly been about reducing the power of the executive.
What’s more, the non-ideological executive needed an agenda, something Pruitt could provide. And it’s pretty much gone that way since Pruitt came to the EPA. In fact, it’s been that way across the board. Trump the president has been more conservative in every way than Trump the candidate.
A recent survey of policy wonks by the Federalist revealed that Trump received mostly high marks for his first year. No, he won’t go down in history as an eloquent, let alone gracious, president. Aside from the rhetoric though, the Trump administration has been like any other standard issue Republican presidency.
In the end, Pruitt has proved himself wrong. Trump is not the Constitution abuser he thought. It looks like Whitehouse got some old oppo research and go overly excited.
