WSJ (“‘I’m the President and You’re Not’: Trump Tests His Power and Frustrates the GOP“):
President Trump has delivered the same retort to political allies who have offered him strategic advice in recent weeks, according to people with knowledge of the conversations: “I’m the president and you’re not.”
While inarguably true, it’s hardly dispositive. While POTUS is the ultimate decider on executive branch policy, the office doesn’t come with a monopoly on knowledge or wisdom. Most Presidents have welcomed counsel to improve decisionmaking.
Seventeen months into his second term, Trump is increasingly relying on his own gut instincts, dismissing the counsel of aides, conservative lawmakers and longtime associates. The result has been a series of decisions that have confounded and frustrated Republicans—heightening fears that voters will punish the GOP in the November elections and testing Trump’s iron grip on the party.
[…]
As he has faced criticism from some in his own party, Trump has made comments in recent weeks that have stunned his political allies, according to people who have spoken to GOP lawmakers and strategists, and provided fodder for Democratic political ads. Trump has said he doesn’t care about the midterm elections. He has played down the effect of high prices on Americans, saying “I love the inflation.” And on Wednesday, he said Iran should be able to keep some of its ballistic missiles after his national security advisers had made destroying Tehran’s ballistic missile capabilities a primary objective of the war.
As I’ve noted before, even a narcissist should care about the midterms. The seemingly inevitable loss of at least one House of Congress will make it next to impossible for him to achieve any of his policy goals in the last two years of his presidency.
White House officials said Trump’s off-the-cuff style is one of his political gifts, arguing that it has helped build a base of support that has stuck with him for a decade. Tump’s team knows that he is the ultimate decider on policy, the officials said.
While it’s not for everybody, it’s doubtless true that his penchant for making every thought public endears him to many. It certainly sets him apart from most politicians.
“No President has worked harder or delivered more than President Trump. The results speak for themselves,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said, pointing to his work on immigration, the economy and national security.
That they do.
Inside the White House, some aides have privately expressed frustrations about Trump’s recent moves. His decision to appoint his housing chief, Bill Pulte, as acting intelligence director, rankled some of the president’s aides, according to people familiar with the matter, many of whom have clashed with Pulte behind the scenes. Trump has in turn expressed frustration with his staff, knocking advisers for discouraging him from talking about his hard-edge immigration policies ahead of the midterms, the people said.
Trump clearly doesn’t care what anyone who doesn’t support him thinks. That likely endears him to his base. But it has to frustrate staffers actually trying to get things done. Not to mention his co-partisans on the Hill.
For much of his second term, Trump has commanded unwavering control over his party, with few GOP politicians publicly raising opposition to his moves. But congressional Republicans, some of whom lost re-election bids after Trump endorsed their opponents, are increasingly offering blunt assessments of Trump’s actions.
“The total control that Trump once had over Congress just isn’t there anymore,” said Ron Bonjean, a former spokesman for House and Senate Republican leadership. “His outspoken dismissal over Republican midterm election hopes and legislative demands that would place them in harm’s way of voters this November has dampened the relationship.”
Quite naturally. Loyalty is ultimately a two-way street.
For months, Trump has resisted warnings from Republicans—and some of his own advisers—that the war was worsening the GOP’s political problems. Voters have expressed alarm in polls at high gas prices, which surged after Iran limited traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
When asked last month about the extent to which Americans’ financial situation motivated him to make a deal to end the war, the president replied: “Not even a little bit.”
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” he said at the time, drawing criticism from fellow Republicans. “I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing—we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
He privately told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he didn’t care about the midterms, according to U.S. and Israeli officials, a statement meant to underscore his commitment to the Iran campaign regardless of the political fallout.
To the extent he cares about US national security, trading his personal popularity and his party’s electoral prospects to advance a longstanding policy goal would be admirable. Alas, he has not achieved that goal.
