U.S. President Donald Trump (REUTERS)
President Donald Trump spent the last six months predicting voters would bolster his Republican rubber stamp in Congress and allow him to march through the remaining two years of his second term, unhindered by Democratic snooping. But the voters did not deliver, and Trump is not taking reality well, reports Slate.
Slate senior editor Jim Newell said voters can expect the newly shaken president to pour even more of the chaos he has been slinging for the last two years.
“We’re keeping our eyes peeled for a surprise of some sort,” reports Newell on Saturday. “Which Cabinet official might either decide or have decided for them that they should be replaced before Democrats take over the Senate confirmation process? (We’ve flagged one possibility later in the newsletter. Hint: He and his family once dropped by Jeffrey Epstein’s island for lunch.) Which other weird demands no one has previously thought of will Trump drop in a 2 a.m. ‘Truth,’ and from which TV show will he get the idea? Will Susan Collins, who has never missed a vote in 30 years, say ‘f—— it’ and miss a vote? Maybe we should make a bingo card.”
Meanwhile, what’s preparing to rule in Republicans’ new minority is more GOP extremism, not sanity, according to Slate.
“House Republicans’ selection of Rep. Jim Jordan, the combative, far-right jabbermouth, as their incoming party leader is a perfect summation of how small and insular the GOP conference will be in the next Congress,” said Newell. “All House Republican candidates who had to spend even one joule of energy trying to appeal to swing voters lost their elections in the tsunami; the ~175 or so who survived basically all believe in Pizzagate. Jordan’s promotion isn’t a story of how a one-time factional bomb thrower remade himself into a leader with broad appeal. It’s that his faction is now the only one left.”
Regardless, Newell said “come January, Republicans in Washington will cede metric tons of political power to the Democrats,” and how Republicans plan to spend their remaining time in power is still largely a question — because their puppet master in the White House had been setting their agenda before he wandered off.
“It’s gone overlooked among postelection analysis, but Republicans have a sizable lame-duck agenda planned between now and the end of the year,” said Newell.
Their biggest priority, so far, is filling every vacancy on the federal judiciary that they can, which amounts to about two dozen seats, because Democrats will likely stonewall any additional far-right Trump’s nominees flooding courts after December.
“Most Senate floor time will be devoted to this,” said Newell, adding that this will inevitably require some fast work in the Judiciary Committee.
Trump is ordering congressional Republicans to slip the Pentagon an extra $350 billion (on top of its regular annual funding of more than $1 trillion), but that kind of generosity would require a problematic party-line reconciliation bill — and neither the GOP or Trump should get their hopes up for that, said Newell.
“Senate Republicans’ majority is going to slim to 52 votes when Sherrod Brown replaces Ohio Sen. Jon Husted in December (thanks to a special election), said Newell. Plus, a last-ditch reconciliation bill would deep-six a bigger government funding deal that the GOP has already hashed out with Democrats.
“Buckle up,” said Newell.