Trump isn’t changing; that’s good and bad for his agenda

President so far has gained no allies to further his policies

USA TODAY WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s greatest political asset is also turning out to be his most damaging governing liability: After six months on the job, he hasn’t changed.

Trump is still the disruptor who defied the Republican establishment by winning the GOP nomination and then the White House against all odds.

With few traditional allies to rely on, candidate Trump won by waging unapologetic attacks on political norms and niceties. But to get anything done in office, he needs friends.

Now he has lashed out at one of his few original loyalists, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the first senator to endorse his presidential bid and a regular surrogate on the campaign trail last year. Trump blasted Sessions on Wednesday for his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, a step that enabled and contributed to the decision by Sessions’ deputy to appoint a special counsel in the case.

“Well, Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job,” Trump complained in a free-wheeling interview with The New York Times. “And I would have picked somebody else.”

The president also castigated Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the FBI. The president warned Mueller not to expand his inquiry into Trump family finances unrelated to Russia. “That’s a violation,” he said, refusing to answer when asked whether he might fire Mueller if he did.

While the president has the legal authority to fire the officials he appoints, it’s hard to overstate the political conflagration that would erupt if he ousted Sessions or Rosenstein, or if he ordered the Justice Department to oust Mueller. His decision to fire FBI Director James Comey created a firestorm of its own and fueled allegations of obstruction of justice, now apparently part of Mueller’s inquiry.

And his willingness to denigrate one of his staunchest supporters — someone who as Alabama senator stood up for Trump when none of his colleagues was willing to do so — could have repercussions on his efforts to persuade members of Congress to support his proposals to pass a budget, overhaul health care, cut taxes, invest in infrastructure and more.

Trump finds himself enmeshed in Russia investigations by the Justice Department and five congressional committees that have created a darkening cloud over his White House, and he has yet to pass a single major legislative initiative. He has run headlong into the separation of powers that gives Congress and the courts the ability to thwart his plans.

His approval-disapproval rating Thursday in the rolling three-day Gallup Poll was 36 percent-59 percent. That’s by far the worst of any modern president at six months. But the voters who elected him have mostly stuck with him. Nearly 9 of 10 Trump voters said in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday that they would vote for him again.

What he hasn’t done is win over the voters who didn’t support him or reassure them that he has the temperament and character a president needs.

“I think it’s clear that Trump’s unconventional style, willingness to defy convention and to say things normal politicians don’t say helped convince voters in last year’s campaign to vote for him,” Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll, wrote in an analysis of Trump’s comparative standing. “Many may have thought he would change his ways once he entered the Oval Office.”

For better or worse, hasn’t. he