Is Donald Trump a rogue Republican—an independent president rather than a party leader? Or is he simply remaking, in fits and starts and with the establishment kicking and screaming, the GOP in his own image? This is a central political question of Trump’s presidency, one coming into focus as the Republican-led Congress lurches into its last attempt at getting some legislative points on the board before an election year begins in January.
At the New York Times, Peter Baker writes that “President Trump demonstrated this past week that he still imagines himself a solitary cowboy as he abandoned Republican congressional leaders to forge a short-term fiscal deal” with the Democratic leaders in Congress, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
“Although elected as a Republican last year,” Baker writes. “Mr. Trump has shown in the nearly eight months in office that he is, in many ways, the first independent to hold the presidency since the advent of the current two-party system around the time of the Civil War.”
There’s been plenty of evidence piling up since this summer that Trump is putting distance between himself and the Republicans in Congress, chiefly in the way he has interacted publicly with leaders like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. He’s blamed them for legislative failures like Obamacare repeal, grumbled at having to sign into law tougher sanctions on Russia backed by the GOP (as well nearly every single Democrat in Congress, too), and loudly urged the Senate to dump the filibuster.
What’s frustrating Republicans on Capitol Hill is that Trump’s words and actions are making the already daunting 2018 midterm elections even more difficult. His encouragement of a primary challenger to Arizona’s Republican senator Jeff Flake is part of it. His praise for North Dakota’s Democratic senator Heidi Heitkamp (“Good woman”) at a speech last week just outside of Bismarck is another. And while efforts like Steve Bannon’s to primary other establishment-tinged GOP senators are independent of President Trump himself, Bannon clearly believes he is acting in Trump’s interest. The former White House strategist says he told Trump he would be focusing on “going after the establishment” after leaving the administration. “Good, I need that,” Trump responded, as Bannon relayed to my colleague Peter Boyer.
From one perspective, the anti-incumbent-Republican campaign, which Politico reports is getting financial support from conservative GOP donor Robert Mercer, does represent a push to simply make the party more reflective of its blond, wavy-haired head. But what worries Republicans in Washington more is not that its majorities will look more Trumpy but that they won’t be majorities after 2018. Money spent defending incumbents in primaries can’t be used in the general election. Some primaries, in swing districts or emerging swing states like Arizona, could give Democrats an advantage. And the Trumpier the party looks, the more retirements, such as Pennsylvania moderate House member Charlie Dent, we’re likely to see.
The appeal to President Trump Republicans in Washington hope to make is that losing the midterms due to a combination of GOP civil war and an unproductive Congress will be catastrophic to Trump himself. Democrats are chomping at the bit to impeach Trump and will do so as soon as they gain the power. Can Trump resist the urge to cause problems for his own team, if only to protect his own position?
Mueller Watch—“Priebus, McGahn Hire Quinn Emanuel In Mueller Probe”
The president will observe the sixteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Monday with a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House in the morning, followed by a ceremony at the Pentagon’s 9/11 memorial.
There’s been a lot of terrific writing on 9/11 at THE WEEKLY STANDARD, including Matt Labash’s dispatch from the streets of New York in the days immediately after the attack and Matthew Continetti’s recollection 10 years later of living in Manhattan on that day.
The Trump administration—with a little help from congressional Democrats—got its hurricane relief package through Congress last week, and federal officials are on the ground in Texas and Florida to help cope with the storms that have lashed the coasts. But just a week after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, the peninsula of Florida is causing logistical jams for relief efforts as Hurricane Irma cuts across the state.
Under more ordinary circumstances, Florida’s government would prepare for catastrophic weather on its Atlantic coast by stationing response units along the Gulf coast, on the opposite side of the state. But Irma’s mammoth size has created a problem: there are no safe areas on the Gulf coast for emergency teams to rendezvous, which may delay the critical efforts of first responders to reach trapped residents.
“I know the moment our first responders can get out to save you if you’re stuck, they will,” Florida governor Rick Scott told CBS’s John Dickerson Sunday. “I’ve called up 7,000 members of the National Guard. We’re going to make sure we fully staff our shelters.”
“This is a little harder, though,” Scott continued, “because it didn’t just impact one coast where we could position assets on the other coast. And so it’s going to take us a little bit longer to do everything we care to do after a storm because we have to bring the assets south, some of them from even out of state, because we couldn’t preposition them here.”
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey last week, many Texans were left stranded in buildings and on roofs, helpless until helicopters or boats could reach them. And first responders couldn’t even begin rescue efforts until the storm had largely subsided, so rapid deployment was critical.
Federal forces are doing all they can, given the difficult circumstances, according to Federal Emergency Management Administration chief Brock Long.
“You know, we’ve been in great position. We are leading the way far forward,” Long told Fox News’s Chris Wallace. “It’s going to take some time; this is a complex event because of the south and north trajectory of the storm. The power is going to be out for a long time. It’s going to be tough for us to get in to perform search and rescue in south Florida. . . . This is a complex event, but as far as positioning goes, you know, we’ve done pretty much all we can.”
Photo of the Day
A twisted street sign turns in the wind along East Atlantic Boulevard in Pompano Beach, Florida, as Hurricane Irma hits on September 10, 2017. (Getty Images)
This is a rough statistic for Cleveland Browns fans to read: “Ben Roethlisberger is NOW the winningest Quarterback in Cleveland Browns stadium history (since 1999).” For those of you not paying attention, Ben Roethlisberger has spent his entire career playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Column of the Day—Ross Douthat on the “Ivanka Way,” an alternative view on how the Trumpism of the first daughter could remake the GOP.
Song of the Day—“When You Were Young” by the Killers.
