Trump is desperate to make his mark

Republicans no longer controls both houses of Congress. But Trump says that’s fine.

Donald Trump is unfazed.

The U.S. president’s Republican Party no longer controls both houses of Congress. But Trump says that’s fine.

Indeed, he argued unconvincingly in a press conference this week, the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections will make it easier for him to advance his legislative agenda.

Those were the elections that resulted in Democrats winning control of the House of Representatives and Republicans strengthening their hold on the Senate — a recipe for gridlock.

Both Trump and Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi have promised to work together in a bipartisan manner to avoid this.

But even if they are sincere, they almost certainly won’t succeed. Just hours after making that co-operation pledge, Trump unilaterally fired attorney general Jeff Sessions — the first step in any plan to derail special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into alleged Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

The Democrats responded, as expected, with fury. In fact, it’s arguably in their political interest not to co-operate on anything substantive with Trump during the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Why allow him to win any credit for, say, reforming health care?

Similarly, it’s in Trump’s political interest not to co-operate with the Democrats.

Better for both to accuse the other side of obstructionism.

All of which means that little is likely to happen legislatively in the domestic areas that pollsters say concern Americans — such as health care and drug prices.

Instead, expect Trump to focus more on matters over which Congress exercises little control, such as foreign and military affairs. The president is already sabrerattling against Iran. He has unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear accord with that country and is warning of dire consequences should Iran fail to accede to U.S. demands.

He has also sent U.S. troops to the Mexican border to thwart would-be illegal immigrants from Latin America. As commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, he could make that deployment permanent.

Conversely, he is talking nice to North Korea and has not ruled out inking some kind of peace accord with its leader, Kim Jong Un.

Will he take the even bolder move of negotiating a peace deal with Afghanistan’s Taliban, thus putting an end to America’s longest war? Don’t dismiss the possibility out of hand. The U.S. has been quietly trying to make peace with the Taliban since Barack Obama’s presidency. Trump’s overwhelming vanity might be enough to push this effort to a successful completion.

Trump has already declared economic war against China, and to a lesser degree against Canada and Europe, by slapping tariffs on products from these areas. Don’t expect that to change until he gets what he wants (which in Canada’s case are quotas on its steel and aluminum exports to the U.S.).

Even before this week’s midterms, Trump made it clear that he wants America’s trading partners to acquiesce to his demands. Now, with legislative achievements near impossible, his political need to win these trade wars is even greater.

The other broad power a president enjoys is the ability to issue executive orders — legally binding edicts that do not require congressional approval. Obama made use of this power to bypass a Republican-controlled Congress and impose pollution requirements on the use of coal.

Look for Trump to try something similar in areas that concern him. He has already mused about issuing an executive order that would deny the automatic right of citizenship to any person born in the U.S.

Such a move would be immediately challenged as unconstitutional. But that wouldn’t necessarily prevent Trump from trying it anyway.

The point is that he wants to be remembered as more than just a crude blowhard with funny hair. All presidents want to leave a legacy. But Trump’s need for acceptance and praise is so achingly obvious as to be almost pitiable.

He is desperate to make a mark. If a hung Congress means he can’t do it the usual way, he will find another.