In this reality-TV presidency, even reruns are a surprise

It’s a tough time for Republicans. Although there are worse things in the world than being stuck with Donald Trump as president.

This week Trump denounced the Republicans’ tax plan before they even had one. He appeared to change his mind once again on immigration and kept the House and Senate dangling on health care. He also told reporters that “I’m a very intelligent person.”

The only two things we can absolutely be confident about are that on almost any given day, Trump will refer to himself as intelligent and remind people how many electoral votes he won. For the rest, it’s anybody’s guess.

Republicans in Congress generally try to just soldier on, but some of them are starting to snap. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., denounced his party’s president in a dramatic “I’m outta here” speech that Trump shrugged off.

Did you know that Jeff Flake once appeared in a reality TV special called “Rival Survival”? I am bringing this up because there seems to be a reality-TV theme running through Washington. Some years are about “hope” and some years we have “fiscal responsibility.” This year it’s along the line of “Naked and Afraid.”

“Rival Survival” paired Flake with a Democratic senator, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. The two were left alone on a desert island to test their ability to feed and shelter themselves with bipartisan cooperation.

Now Flake is one of the Republican rebels standing up to Trump on a daily basis, along with Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John McCain of Arizona.

Trump, of course, spent much of his career pretending to be himself before the cameras. That’s the thing about reality TV — it’s happening, but you’re also making it up.

The president tends to be extremely agreeable when he’s playing chief executive at meetings. He had a gathering with Republicans to talk about tax cuts and received a standing ovation. “I called it a love fest,” Trump said later. This is the same guy who got along superwell with some Democratic senators at a dinner not too long ago. They discussed taxes, too, and agreed about everything.

But nothing’s necessarily going to last once people leave the room.

Early in this presidency, optimists believed that when Trump suddenly veered wildly from one position to another it was canny tactics. Now optimists believe that he’s just ... really forgetful.

It’s tough, as everybody knows, to come to a bipartisan agreement on anything these days. Now, if the two parties are ready to come together, they can’t be sure the president won’t rewrite the script and denounce them for betraying the middle class.

I know many of you are exhausted by crazy-person stories pouring out of the White House. Perhaps you’d feel better if you believed Trump does not so much lie as rerun reality on a different camera. He said this week that he was “extremely nice” to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the four soldiers killed in Niger. Myeshia Johnson said that the president was unfeeling and seemed not to know her husband’s name.

Trump claimed he got all the names right because he has “one of the great memories of all time.” It is possible that’s the way he recalls the scene. In the real world, he seems to naturally say things that are off-kilter.

Does that make you feel better? No? Well, I tried.