Trump smacks into wall of Republican resistance
When pushed, senators powerful enough to push back
President Trump’s WASHINGTON strong-arm negotiating tactics may have worked against business opponents, but they backfired with Republican senators, who have the political clout to resist him, experts said.
“No matter how strong or dominant a personality the president has, he is going to have trouble taking on an American political institution as powerful as the U.S. Senate,” said Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University. “Senators have a strong sense of independence and sense of self that says, ‘I don’t get pushed around that way.’ And they’re pushing back.” In the past two weeks:
uSen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, helped defeat Trumpsupported bills that would have repealed Obamacare despite warnings from the administration that her vote could jeopardize Alaska’s economic future. The warnings were delivered by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who must go before Murkowski’s panel for budget and staffing approval. uJudiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, made it clear that his committee will not approve a new attorney general for Trump if he fires Jeff Sessions. Senators rallied around the former Alabama senator amid blistering attacks against him by the president, who is angry Sessions recused himself from the investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. uMajority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate will not get rid of the legislative fil-
ibuster, despite tweets from Trump pressuring GOP senators to eliminate the rule to make it easier for the White House to push through its agenda.
“It’s stunning to think the president believes that this kind of pressure campaign is going to bring senators to the table when it is actually repelling them,” said Joshua Huder, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University.
Trump’s tactics reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the separation of powers and the fact that the legislative branch is equal to the executive branch under the Constitution, said James Thurber, a political scientist at American Univer
sity and author of Rivals for Power: PresidentialCongressional Relations.
Rather than inspiring loyalty from GOP senators, Trump’s “hamhanded, amateurish and stupid” tactics may spur them to increasingly go their own way, Thurber said.
Last week, the Senate approved economic sanctions against Russia despite Trump’s objections. Trump reluctantly signed the bill even though it restricts his power.
“I see the president being more and more marginalized, with the leadership in the House and Senate going forward with their own agenda and trying to ignore him as best they can,” Thurber said.
A poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University showed that 33% of Americans approve of how the president is doing his job. “He’s not in a position to inspire fear or respect,” Thurber said.
Trump might do well to spend more time sitting down with individual senators and listening to their concerns, Thurber said. “Stop tweeting, work quietly with them, build coalitions,” Thurber advised. “He needs to support them as much as he can even though sometimes he doesn’t totally agree with them.”