How Trump can beat funk

BACK when Ed Koch was riding roughshod over New York politics, writer Jack Newfield mused that there were 10,000 people waiting to be the second person to punch Koch in the nose. Sure enough, when the mayor faltered, his opponents gleefully piled on.

Donald Trump, a brash developer in those days, now finds himself in a situation similar to Koch’s. Punched hard by voters, his enemies are lining up to take their shot.

Following the midterm rebuke, the rude scoldings in Europe and the mob mentality of congressional pipsqueaks reflect a new bravado among his tormentors.

This is not to suggest that the first two years of Trump’s presidency were a walk in the park. Far from it, as no man who sat in the Oval Office ever faced such a ruthless onslaught from the opposition party and its media handmaidens.

But if the fever of recent days is any indication, the past will prove to be mere prologue for the coming storm. My guess is that the president realizes the magnitude of the shift against him, which explains the Trump funk.

He looked unusually exhausted and out of sorts at the contentious press conference the morning after Election Day, and his mood hasn’t visibly improved. He played smoldering defense during the trip to France, and his initial tweets about the deadly California wildfires were callous.

He reflexively reacted to vote counts in Arizona and Florida, and his return home is generating a flurry of reports about another staff shake-up, with First Lady Melania Trump said to be urging changes. Meanwhile, the president is also taunting the French about how America saved its bacon in two world wars.

Even the understandable personnel move Trump has made — firing the hapless Jeff Sessions as attorney general — opened another battle, with his appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting AG proving to be a ripe target for Democrats.

Trump, of course, is not the first president to be humbled in his first midterm. The Dem takeover of the House was close to the historic average loss for a president’s party, and the GOP hold on the Senate remains a firewall.

But Trump is in a uniquely bad spot in several regards, especially because of the ongoing probe by special counsel Robert Mueller and the plan by House Dems to use subpoena power to tie him up in knots, if not to bring him down.

Combined with the fact that about half the country hates Trump’s very existence, those realities narrow his paths forward. But they do not eliminate them.

First, however, the president must pull himself out of his funk. The sooner he does, the sooner he can begin to regain his footing. And, all other things being equal, that should give him a reasonable chance for re-election.

The president initially tried to put a smiley face on defeat, saying he was eager to work with likely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He went so far as to offer to sign legislation he found acceptable even if it most of the votes in both houses came from Dems.

That posture is the right one, and could actually showcase Trump’s deal-making skills in ways GOP control didn’t.n’t. Freed from the restraints of having to pleaseease nearly every Republican in both houses,s, he could follow Bill Clinton’s path after hiss first midterm de-debacle and work with the otherother side to get things done, then take creditdit for the results.

That will work, however,er, only if Trump doesn’t abandon the GOP entirely for ephemeral partnership withth Democrats. Af-After all, it’s not Republicans whowho are threaten-threatening to impeach him.

Which brings us to whatt must be the sec-second element of Trump’s newnew approach. He must show he can, at leastt on occasion, turn the other cheek.

With many on the left absolutely crazed with Trump hatred, they are likely to over-overplay their hand, as they didd during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation. Then the char-character-assassination attemptpt based on false charges became the defining is-issue, and it united the GOPOP to put a crucial fifth constitutionall conserva-conservative on the Supreme Court.t.

But the left’s bad habit will benefit Trump only if he keeps hiss cool and stays focused on the nation’son’s busi-business. It doesn’t mean he can’tcan’t hit back, it just means he hass to pick his spots with an eye towardard win-winning the war, not just thee battle. Anything that moves his agenda forward and keeps anothernother promise is the best course,, even if he has to swallow someme in-insults and compromises.

If he can do that, voters areare more likely to remember why Trump was elected and no-notice that Dems face problemsms of their own. There is a growing gap between thehe left and far left, and Tues-day’s demonstration out-side Pelosi’s office, led by incoming New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, illustrates the pressures the party faces from its socialist-leaning members.

Polls suggest most of the country opposes the job-killing tax hikes needed just to make a down payment on massive new spending programs Ocasio-Cortez and others want.

It’s also true that a gaggle of Dem senators plan to run for president in 2020, meaning they will be freelancing on policy and, increasingly, absent from the Senate, which should maximize GOP advantage.

Trump, then, is down, but far from out. Anybody who thinks otherwise has learned nothing from the last three years.