Day -30: Donald Trump Controls Congressional Republicans, But Not For Long
Politico ran a story today talking about how congressional Republicans are afraid to speak out against Donald Trump for fear of retribution Members of Congress, our elected officials, are worried the president-elect, his supporters or his right-wing media cronies, will lambaste them for even appearing to be even slightly critical of Trump or his policies.
Trump has the upper hand at the moment.
It won’t last.
There are simply too many voices to intimidate and too many opinions and ideologies to suppress in the GOP alone.
For example, there are more conservator Senators, like John Cornyn, more moderate Senators, like Lindsey Graham, more politically-minded Senators, like Mitch McConnell, Senators that are more Libertarian than Republican, like Rand Paul, and Senators who have their eye on the big chair in the White House, like Ted Cruz.
All of these personalities will be too much for Trump’s team to handle when the day-to-day realities of the job come into play. No president has ever been able to exert the level of control that Trump seeks to exert over the GOP.
He’ll fail.
Worse, actually.
Members of Congress, especially in the Senate, are a tight fraternity. There are obvious factions, no doubt. But Trump haranguing individual members will give pause to all.
Trump’s biggest problem is that every rock that gets turned over about his past will turn up dirt. Conflicts of interest abound with shady practices being used before, during and after the election.
After kicking the GOP down the path he wants, this will only end one way: with GOP congressional leaders quietly going to Trump and telling him that any more outbursts, vetoes (to the extent he vetoes anything at all), or politically ploys used to intimidate will be met with hearings, inquiries and investigations. Or they’ll threaten to put forward a bipartisan, veto-proof bill requiring all presidents to divest their holdings or turn over their tax returns.
He’ll be privately neutered with the additional threat that his pants will be dropped for the world to see.
The last few years have shown that the GOP is full of powerful people that are more than capable of spinning their own narratives and using any trick in the book to further their goals. Anyone looking to run for presidency or increase their name-recognition or has built up the political capital to take a few hits early is a threat to Trump.
Politically, Donald Trump is still a novice. He’s fending off stray attacks from the front, but he’s already being outflanked.
-30 days in, 1491 to go
Follow us on Twitter @TrumpTimer
