In Oval Office, tight corners and few angles
Shutdown crisis, Roger Stone’s indictment test a ‘chaos president’
WASHINGTON — Hours after the indictment and arrest of President Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone on seven charges of lying and obstructing justice, another dramatic development demanded the nation shift its weary eyes.
At some of the nation’s busiest airports, planes were halted because so many air traffic controllers, unpaid through a 35-day government shutdown, called in sick. The splitscreen images captured a sense of the chaos that has surrounded Trump for much of his two years in the Oval Office.
For most of that time, the country has adjusted to a reality-television-styled presidency that has delivered its share of shocks to the system. Trump has not always faced the kind of severe consequences that might have blown back at his predecessors. Friday, however, the president’s ability to avoid a steep price for his governing style seemed to change.
Under mounting pressure and amid declining
poll numbers, Trump caved in on his demands for a border wall. By midafternoon, he announced a short-term agreement to reopen government agencies.
He warned the reprieve could be only a temporary return to normalcy, threatening to issue a possible emergency declaration should a long-term spending bill not include a level of border security money he deems satisfactory.
“If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on Feb. 15, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and Constitution of the United States to address this emergency,” Trump said in the Rose Garden.
Democratic leaders, however, seemed unconcerned about that possibility, knowing that the public had largely blamed Trump for the shutdown and that the president’s fellow Republicans have shown no willingness to go through another round.
From farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs as a result of the president’s trade war to retirees worried about their investments as the stock markets swing, many Americans, including some of those who voted for Trump in 2016, had been affected by his policies well before the shutdown occurred. But the pain the shutdown inflicted on roughly 800,000 federal workers, many of whom were forced to work without pay, appeared to crystallize the uneasiness many voters have felt about Trump’s leadership.
“We’re in a period where how he acts and what he says is being viewed much more critically in light of the shutdown and the changing economy,” said Peter Hart, a veteran Democratic pollster. “Instead of being the hero for ending the shutdown, he’s seen as the villain for starting it.”
Many voters who tipped the 2016 election to Trump said they were fed up with the Washington establishment and liked the notion of a president as a disruptive force. But disruption may have gone too far for some.
“It’s gone from philosophical to personal,” Hart said. “That means the things that people might have agreed with in the past are coming into direct conflict with how they have to live their personal life.”
The frustration runs deep even inside Trump’s own administration and among some allies advocating for stricter immigration policies.
“Making some people stay home when they don’t want to and making others show up without pay — it’s mind-boggling, it’s shortsighted and it’s unfair,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a video message to all bureau employees. “It takes a lot to get me angry, but I’m about as angry as I’ve been in a long, long time.”
Trump’s capitulation to Democrats on the shutdown, coming two days after his retreat following a failed effort to push House Speaker Nancy Pelosi into allowing him to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday, threatens to worsen his position, at least temporarily. It could weaken his standing with some of his supporters who have long accepted the president’s notion of himself as a “winner” and appreciated his willingness to fight, especially on the issue of illegal immigration.
“Pelosi is slapping him around so far,” said one Trump campaign adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “If this keeps up, forget about 2020.”
But Raj Shah, who recently left his position as a White House deputy press secretary, counseled Trump supporters to be patient.
“This was a short-term move,” he said of Friday’s reversal. “Now the White House and Republicans are in a much better place to demand concessions on border security and wall funding.”
The frenetic nature of Trump’s presidency is hardly a surprise.
During his campaign, Trump thrived on the nonstop flow of news, good or bad, and the sense that he would always remain the center of attention, whether facing off against a Gold Star family or the pope. One of his frustrated GOP primary rivals, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, memorably warned that he was a “chaos candidate” who would become “a chaos president.”
On Saturday, the chaos continued — at least on Twitter.
“Will not be easy to make a deal, both parties very dug in,” he wrote. “The case for National Security has been greatly enhanced by what has been happening at the Border & through dialogue. We will build the Wall!”
He also had tweeted Friday night that the deal “was in no way a concession.”