Calling it like it is.
His personal obsessions and campaign of retribution are damaging his Presidency and his party.
Republicans don’t want to say this publicly, but privately they do: President Trump’s personal political obsessions are hurting his Presidency, harming the chances for further policy gains the rest of this year, and putting control of the House and Senate in jeopardy.
That’s the backdrop to the GOP revolt this week in Congress on war powers and funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Trump’s unrelated priorities are handing Democrats gift after gift and forcing Republicans to take difficult votes that could cost them in November. His desire for political revenge is also alienating Members of Congress he will need this year.
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Senate GOP frustration is also boiling after Mr. Trump’s campaign against two Senators running for re-election. First he helped defeat Lousiana’s Bill Cassidy in a primary, and this week he endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn. Mr. Trump’s motives in both cases were largely personal—he wanted revenge against Mr. Cassidy for thinking his behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, was an impeachable offense, and Mr. Cornyn didn’t endorse him for President with enough alacrity to suit his loyalty test.
In both cases, he’ll get slavish replacements—that is, if Mr. Paxton wins the primary and then doesn’t lose in November. But meantime there are governing consequences for alienating allies.
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Mr. Trump’s politics has always been largely personal, but in his second term it has become self-indulgent even by his standards. The Trump name on everything, the Beltway “arch” and other monuments to French-like grandeur. And most of all the politics of retribution and lawfare as he seeks to ruin anyone he thinks has wronged him. …
Mr. Trump’s Presidency will be all but over—except for impeachment 3.0—if the GOP loses control of Congress in November. If he wants to accomplish more legislatively, he has only a few months to do it. Does he want his remaining legacy to be a ballroom, an Arc de Trump, and payoffs for his friends from a fund that Republicans would denounce if a Democratic President tried it?
Mr. Trump needs a second-year reset, or he is headed toward a second-term failure.
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