DT scolds GOP into backing off its ethics zap

Congressional Republicans butted heads for the first time with President-elect Donald Trump — and immediately backed down.

The skirmish started when Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) tucked a provision into a rules package Monday night to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body meant to oversee lawmakers and root out corruption. The change would have largely nullified the office’s power and put it under the control of the House Ethics Committee.

But the controversial measure was opposed by Trump, who used his most frequently em- ployed megaphone, Twitter, to kill the move.

“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.

“Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!”

Trump included the hashtag “#DTS,” standing for “drain the swamp,” a motto frequently used during his campaign.

By midday, Republican leaders huddled for an emergency 10-minute meeting, overruled their members and announced they wouldn’t gut the ethics office after all.

A source in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office was defensive, telling The Post that “Ryan spoke out against the amendment and opposed it throughout” and claimed that “the speaker is taking [action] to protect the office’s independence.”

Aside from Goodlatte, other members of Congress shied away from publicly defending the measure — which had been adopted in a secret ballot in the GOP caucus, 119 to 74.

“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) told reporters. “Sometimes