Day -17: Trump vs. GOP, Rd. 1

Congress, in shameful secrecy, decided to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics. The OCE was set up in 2008 after a number of congressional corruption scandals. Republicans have now voted to scrap it, because…corruption is no longer importance?

Perhaps sensing the backlash and hypocrisy from his “drain the swamp” of corruption message, Donald Trump took to Twitter to question the moves of the GOP.

Trump, of course, hedges and throws the office under the bus as “unfair,” because those who investigate corruption and wrongdoing are obviously going to have problems with the way people like Trump will do business and hold elected office.

Either way, the President-elect has called out Congress (but hedged again by not having the fortitude to call out Republicans — even though they control Congress), for not prioritizing more important issues.

This would deserve a modicum of credit — even taking his absurd double hedging into account — if Trump’s priorities didn’t include gutting insurance coverage for tens of millions of Americans and providing tax breaks to the top 1%.

Trump read the criticism of the GOP’s action over the last day and now wants the praise for being a populist on this anti-corruption issue. This isn’t inherently bad, political games or not.

This will not be the first time that Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress square off. In this case, Trump gauged the public reaction and spoke out accordingly.

Advantage: Trump.

-17 days in, 1478 to go

Follow us on Twitter @TrumpTimer