An abusive leader

ON A baking-hot evening in Phoenix, in another of the campaign-style rallies in red states that seem to give him strength when he runs into trouble in Washington, President Trump trotted out the usual enemies, the malefactors in the “very dishonest media” and the “anarchists” of the left.

But this time he gave equal billing to his fellow Republicans in Congress – the people he will surely need if he hopes to deliver on infrastructure or anything else of value to the working-class Americans who elected him.

Among these were Arizona’s two senators – John McCain, who cast the decisive vote in the Senate to dash Mr Trump’s effort to repeal Obamacare, and Jeff Flake, a conservative who has been a thorn in the presidential side.

Neither was mentioned by name. Mr McCain was sarcastically referred to as “one vote”. As for Mr Flake, “Nobody knows who the hell he is”.

Mr Trump has not, in fact, been acting in a manner befitting his office, nor offering a coherent governing strategy. He has alternately abused and belittled his putative allies.

Mr Mitch McConnell has lately been suggesting that Mr Trump’s administration may not survive a summer of missteps; other Republicans are speaking openly about abandoning him.

Mr Trump’s larger problem – which is America’s problem – is, as is now clear, an absence of any plausible governing vision, which in turn has created a vacuum into which all sorts of ideas descend to do battle. – railing against immigrants, as he did Tuesday, and threatening to kill trade deals to appeal to his base, then pushing for a tax code overhaul and tax cuts for the wealthy to appeal to his Wall Street-based advisers.