2018 Midterms-- All About Señor Trumpanzee

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reported that Marc Short, Trump's liaison to Congress is quitting, complaining that trying to push Trump's agenda through the GOP-controlled Congress has reached a point of "diminishing returns." Far right extremists are delighted because they view him as a champion for the GOP establishment’s. They're always bitching that he didn't obtain funding for the Great Wall of Trumpanzee or repeal ObamaCare. Maybe he'll go back to his old job working for the Koch brothers' political operation.Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reported that Marc Short, Trump's liaison to Congress is quitting, complaining that trying to push Trump's agenda through the GOP-controlled Congress has reached a point of "diminishing returns." Far right extremists are delighted because they view him as a champion for the GOP establishment’s. They're always bitching that he didn't obtain funding for the Great Wall of Trumpanzee or repeal ObamaCare. Maybe he'll go back to his old job working for the Koch brothers' political operation.

Sounds grand to me-- for the Democrats. The Capitol Hill Republicans hate his guts as much as Democrats do-- maybe more, if that's possible... but they whisper it and clam up when there are microphones around... pining for an Eisenhower in 2020 to save them. Nazis are in heaven. "Deal with it," said Corey Stewart, the anti-immigrant, pro-Confederate symbols, new Republican nominee for Senate in Virginia: "This is the new Republican Party." As for the people resisting, Stewart said, "They’re dinosaurs. They need to wake up and understand that President Trump has fundamentally remade the Republican Party." In his concession speech, Mark Sanford said, "We are a nation of laws." In her victory speech, the self funding Trumpist who beat him, Katie Arrington had a different interpretation of the Republican Party: "We are the party of President Donald J. Trump."

She's probably right-- and her assertion will be examinable in November. Amy Walter observed for the Cook Political Report yesterday that Trump Is Everything Voters Hoped/Feared He Would Be. She's correct when she asserts that "If you are surprised at what President Donald Trump is doing or how he is behaving or what he is prioritizing, you shouldn’t be. This is what he was doing, what he was saying, and how he was acting throughout the 2016 campaign. On some topics, he has been espousing the same rhetoric for years and years."

Is anyone really surprised that Trump is not interested in following the priorities of GOP party leaders in Congress? Shouldn’t we have expected that the “I alone can fix it” candidate would not feel constrained by the other co-equal branches of government?

...President Trump is not all that much different than candidate Trump. This is why his base of support has remained solid, and why those who never liked him in the first place are as turned off by him as ever.

A Fox News poll, taken June 3-6, asked respondents to give one specific reason for why they either approved or disapproved of the President.  Among the 45 percent of voters who said they approved of the job Trump was doing, the number one reason, volunteered by 24 percent of respondents, was “helping the economy/creating jobs.” But, a combined 53 percent focused more on his style than substance, like “keeping promises,” “getting things done,” “doing what he said,” “putting America first,” and “shaking things up.”

...Trump is everything today as president that voters had hoped or feared he would be when he was a candidate.

This helps explains why Trump’s job approval ratings in the most recent polls from Fox (45 percent) and NBC/Wall Street Journal (44 percent) are close to where he was on Election Day 2016 when he took 46 percent of the vote.

The other similarity between this election and the one in 2016 is that where the spotlight is focused this fall will determine if the election breaks for Democrats or for Republicans. As I wrote back then, when the spotlight was trained on Clinton’s weaknesses (emails, “deplorables,” the Wikileaks trove), her numbers went down and Trump’s went up. When Trump and his temperament were in the spotlight, he went down and she went up.

In 2018, Democrats would like the spotlight to be trained on health care and tax reform. Specifically, they want to be talking about the rising cost of health care and a GOP crafted tax law that they argue is tilted toward the wealthy and big corporations over struggling middle class families. In fact, some of the lowest approval ratings for the president-- and some of the largest advantages Democrats have had on the congressional ballot-- came during the debates and votes on health care legislation and the tax bill.

Republicans certainly would like to see the president be more disciplined. But, the constant swirl and clamor also make it hard for even bad stories to stick around before they are swept off the front pages by something else. The consistently good economic news helps as well.

But, let's be honest, we have no idea where that spotlight will be shining by November. Will it be on a recently released Mueller report? Health care premium hikes? The success/failure of North Korean denuclearization?

One thing we do know, however, is that Trump will never be out of the spotlight. And, as such, opposition to or support for him is what will ultimately determine the outcome of 2018.

Amy's right. Does Pelosi understand that? Does the DCCC? I asked Alan Grayson (D-FL) what he thinks. "Obviously, it’s extremely important to propose and implement policies that improve the lives of ordinary people; that’s what this is supposed to be all about. However, the GOP has set out-- largely successfully-- to make every policy debatable. Universal healthcare, progressive taxation, immigration reform, even climate change: the Republicans have consistently undermined any effort distinguish good policies from bad. The one thing that remains undebatable in the minds of almost everyone is Trump himself,"

And Andy Borowitz sure does too:

As new details emerge from this week’s summit in Singapore, the White House has confirmed that Donald J. Trump unilaterally offered to let Kim Jong Un have Mike Pence as his personal manservant.

The offer reportedly came after Kim spoke glowingly to Trump about the Vice-President’s obsequiousness, sources said.

“Even by North Korean standards, Pence puts my toadies to shame,” Kim reportedly said.

Once the necessary paperwork is squared away, Pence could begin bowing and scraping in Pyongyang as early as next week.

Going forward, Pence’s duties as senior sycophant to Trump are expected to be performed by Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California.

Although State Department insiders were taken by surprise by Trump’s offering of Pence, for whom the U.S. will receive nothing in return, the deal has been met with nearly universal approval.

“At least Trump didn’t give away much this time,” one diplomat said