Trump’s stalled presidency: Legislative agenda sputters amid Russia cloud
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WASHINGTON, DC: U.S. President Donald Trump announces the Air Traffic Control Initiative during an event in the East Room of the White House on June 5, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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After Trump’s unexpected 2016 win,Republicans were bullish at the start his presidency about winning wholesale changes to health care, remaking the tax system and rebuilding America’s infrastructure.
Nearly five months in, though, little of that has happened. And Trump’s top aides are now acknowledging the problem.
“There’s no doubt that keeping members focused on investigations detracts from our legislative agenda and detracts from what we’re trying to deliver to the American people,” Marc Short, Trump’s White House director of legislative affairs, told reporters on Monday.
Short’s blunt comments echo what Republicans in the White House and on Capitol Hill have said in private about the continual drip, drip, drip of controversies coming from the White House. With only so many hours to work each week, the controversies have forced Republicans to spend time responding to Trump stories and protecting the party, leaving them largely unable to move legislation through a contentious Congress.
Trump’s flagging approval rating – 37% in the most recent Gallup poll – is at or near historic lows for this early in his presidency, a fact that has not helped the issue. Public disapproval has hardened Trump’s opposition, giving Democrats hope for the future and has provided some Republicans the cover to stand up to the President when needed.
Democrats learned early on in Trump’s presidency that there is no upside to working with the contentious leader. Special and primary elections this year have found Democrats trumpeting their opposition to Trump, not their willingness to work with him. And Democrats on Capitol Hill have done the same, disavowing Trump more than working with him.
“In all honesty, I think it’s a stalled Congress,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told CNN’s Manu Raju on Tuesday. “So the President’s going to have to lead. Tweeting doesn’t help, but Congress is more broken than just his tweets.”
To spur his legislative agenda, Trump will meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn Tuesday afternoon, according to a White House official.
The meeting will focus on health care, tax reform and next steps in the President’s agenda, Short said.
Republicans, like Graham, are hopeful that the meeting will lead to more coordination between the White House and Capitol Hill.
These congressional leaders also have their futures on the line. Failing to get much done during Trump’s first year in office, when Trump’s power is at its highest, could mean GOP disaster in the 2018 midterm election. Democrats, invigorated by a sputtering Trump, have already began laying out plans to target vulnerable Republicans whose future relies on Trump’s popularity and effectiveness.
Later Tuesday, Trump will have dinner with Sens. Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Cory Gardner and Todd Young and Reps. Lee Zeldin and Francis Rooney, according to the same official. The focus of that meeting will be the President’s recent foreign trip and foreign policy.
Trump’s renewed focus on his legislative agenda comes days before one of the most consequential moments in Trump’s presidency, when Comey heads to Capitol Hill to testify about his conversations with Trump and memos he kept about requests the President made to him. The hearing before the Senate intelligence committee could be the most watched moment of the year in Washington, largely thwarting any momentum Republicans had hoped for on tax reform or infrastructure spending.
Short said that the White House believes Trump “is often very effective in driving our message in Congress” despite the fact he does “not have a conventional of style.”
“Many of his efforts are extremely helpful to us in getting our legislation accomplished,” Short said.
Photos: Donald Trump's rise
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President-elect Donald Trump has been in the spotlight for years. From developing real estate and producing and starring in TV shows, he became a celebrity long before winning the White House.
Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
Trump at age 4. He was born in 1946 to Fred and Mary Trump in New York City. His father was a real estate developer.
Photos: Donald Trump's rise
Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
Trump, left, in a family photo. He was the second-youngest of five children.
Photos: Donald Trump's rise
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Trump, center, stands at attention during his senior year at the New York Military Academy in 1964.
Photos: Donald Trump's rise
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Trump, center, wears a baseball uniform at the New York Military Academy in 1964. After he graduated from the boarding school, he went to college. He started at Fordham University before transferring and later graduating from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania's business school.
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Trump stands with Alfred Eisenpreis, New York's economic development administrator, in 1976 while they look at a sketch of a new 1,400-room renovation project of the Commodore Hotel. After graduating college in 1968, Trump worked with his father on developments in Queens and Brooklyn before purchasing or building multiple properties in New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Those properties included Trump Tower in New York and Trump Plaza and multiple casinos in Atlantic City.
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Trump attends an event to mark the start of construction of the New York Convention Center in 1979.
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Trump wears a hard hat at the Trump Tower construction site in New York in 1980.
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Trump was married to Ivana Zelnicek Trump from 1977 to 1990, when they divorced. They had three children together: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.
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The Trump family, circa 1986.
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Trump uses his personal helicopter to get around New York in 1987.
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Trump stands in the atrium of the Trump Tower.
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Trump attends the opening of his new Atlantic City casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1989.
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Trump signs his second book, "Trump: Surviving at the Top," in 1990. Trump has published at least 16 other books, including "The Art of the Deal" and "The America We Deserve."
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Trump and singer Michael Jackson pose for a photo before traveling to visit Ryan White, a young child with AIDS, in 1990.
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Trump dips his second wife, Marla Maples, after the couple married in a private ceremony in New York in December 1993. The couple divorced in 1999 and had one daughter together, Tiffany.
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Trump putts a golf ball in his New York office in 1998.
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An advertisement for the television show "The Apprentice" hangs at Trump Tower in 2004. The show launched in January of that year. In January 2008, the show returned as "Celebrity Apprentice."
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A 12-inch talking Trump doll is on display at a toy store in New York in September 2004.
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Bebeto Matthews/AP
Trump attends a news conference in 2005 that announced the establishment of Trump University. From 2005 until it closed in 2010, Trump University had about 10,000 people sign up for a program that promised success in real estate. Three separate lawsuits -- two class-action suits filed in California and one filed by New York's attorney general -- argued that the program was mired in fraud and deception. Trump's camp rejected the suits' claims as "baseless." And Trump has charged that the New York case against him is politically motivated.
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Trump attends the U.S. Open tennis tournament with his third wife, Melania Knauss-Trump, and their son, Barron, in 2006. Trump and Knauss married in 2005.
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Trump wrestles with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania in 2007. Trump has close ties with the WWE and its CEO, Vince McMahon.
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For "The Apprentice," Trump was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2007.
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Trump appears on the set of "The Celebrity Apprentice" with two of his children -- Donald Jr. and Ivanka -- in 2009.
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Trump poses with Miss Universe contestants in 2011. Trump had been executive producer of the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants since 1996.
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In 2012, Trump announces his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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Trump speaks in Sarasota, Florida, after accepting the Statesman of the Year Award at the Sarasota GOP dinner in August 2012. It was shortly before the Republican National Convention in nearby Tampa.
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Trump appears on stage with singer Nick Jonas and television personality Giuliana Rancic during the 2013 Miss USA pageant.
Trump -- flanked by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, left, and Ted Cruz -- speaks during a CNN debate in Miami on March 10. Trump dominated the GOP primaries and emerged as the presumptive nominee in May.
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The Trump family poses for a photo in New York in April.
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Trump speaks during a campaign event in Evansville, Indiana, on April 28. After Trump won the Indiana primary, his last two competitors dropped out of the GOP race.
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Trump delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention in July, accepting the party's nomination for President. "I have had a truly great life in business," he said. "But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country -- to go to work for you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people."
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Trump faces Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the first presidential debate, which took place in Hempstead, New York, in September.
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Donald Trump/Twitter
Trump apologizes in a video, posted to his Twitter account in October, for vulgar and sexually aggressive remarks he made a decade ago regarding women. "I said it, I was wrong and I apologize," Trump said, referring to lewd comments he made during a previously unaired taping of "Access Hollywood." Multiple Republican leaders rescinded their endorsements of Trump after the footage was released.
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Trump walks on stage with his family after he was declared the election winner on November 9. "Ours was not a campaign, but rather, an incredible and great movement," he told his supporters in New York.
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Trump is joined by his family as he is sworn in as President on January 20.
But months into his administration, Trump’s top legislative achievement is getting health care reform through the Republican-controlled House, a feat that took two attempts after the first failed to garner enough conservative support. The bill has all but stalled in the Senate.
“We led off with health care, which I thought was a mistake,” Graham said. “We’ll probably have a vote on a health care bill, but the chance of the House and the Senate reconciling our positions on health care is pretty limited.”
To combat the idea that Trump’s momentum is stalled, the White House has begun to set up a series of week-long policy pushes to spur movement. A White House official told CNN on Saturday that Trump would focus on infrastructure for the following week, including trips to Ohio and the Department of Transportation office in Washington.
That plan was quickly undercut on Monday morning when Trump published a series of tweets attacking his own Justice Department, reaffirming his belief that his immigration plan is a travel ban and blasting the mayor of London, who is currently working to steer his city though the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
The tweets ensured that Monday’s focus was on Trump’s personal messages, not his policy proposals.
“Unfortunately, the President has, I think, created problems for himself by his Twitter habit,” said Cornyn, who will meet with Trump Tuesday, told a local Texas radio station on Monday.
Even still, the White House staged a series of photo ops on infrastructure, including a pseudo-signing ceremony Monday that had the President putting pen to paper on a letter that urged Congress to pass a bill that privatized the nation’s air traffic controllers.
Despite the fanfare, which included a speech and a ceremonial pen, Congress has no obligation to follow anything Trump signed at the event. And with no incentive to help Trump, Democrats are unlikely to get behind the plan.
