Trump loyalists, who defend whatever he does—and who usually are also people who have long been angry at Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell—have no problem defending this move of Trump’s and seeing it as in line with their own desire to stick it to the latter two, even if it hurts the right’s cause. So they would be eager to see Trump as doing something they want to do in the personal sense—giving the finger to Ryan and McConnell no matter what the issue.
Everyone else, however, should realize that this is what you get when you elect a guy like Trump. I spent the better part of a year documenting a few things that I’ll now review, and I’ll add a few other thoughts as well:
(1) Trump has no reliable coherent conservative philosophy. Everything he does that is conservative is gravy, and I’m grateful for it, but there is no point in relying on him to be conservative. All bets are always off with Trump.
(2) Trump is inconsistent on a lot of things. During the campaign year I called him “mutable,” and that is exactly what he is. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t sometimes do exactly what he said he would do. But you can’t rely on it. In fact, I believe he really really likes to surprise people.
(3) Trump is a New Yorker with a history of liking some big government functions. He knows Schumer quite well. It should be no surprise if he works with him sometimes and gives him what he wants.
(4) Slightly off-topic, but this “mutable” history of Trump’s is especially true of DACA, a topic on which he’s been all over the map but has signaled time and again that he is mostly inclined to go easy on DREAMERS.
(5) Trump’s supporters will rationalize whatever he does.
http://neoneocon.com/2017/09/07/trump-and-the-debt-ceiling/
I had thought it would be much more like this all along, actually.
But he has mostly been a very well-behaved little boy so far, with Gorusch, and appointing Goldman Sachs to run the Treasury, and eliminating financial and environmental oversight, and allowing them to try to eradicate healthcare.
So much that one-time Never Trumpets like the National Review quickly cast principles and decorum aside, and went all in on defending him more or less seamlessly (or so they hoped it would appear, anyhow). And with Governess Kelly now scheduling his playdates, and Bannon and Gorka et al ordered to go stand in a corner, all this was supposed to have been under wraps.
The scary thing for Republicans to confront now is that should 'Trumpism' continue to diverge into a quasi-Third Party personality cult, they will be left as the third party, by some distance. Even Americans overwhelmingly despise their economic agenda, and many of their social policies too. And without Trump voters, they would be utterly annihilated at every level.
