Donald Trump’s Need Now: Find a Governing Coalition

The president is more on his own than is usually the case early in a term, writes columnist Gerald F. Seib

 The collapse of Republicans’ first order of business in the new Washington, a health-care overhaul, reveals a startling reality for President Donald Trump: At this moment, two months into his presidency, he doesn’t yet have a reliable governing coalition.

Moreover, he may be on his own to create one.

The effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act failed because Mr. Trump got zero Democratic support, because neither his threats nor his cajoling were sufficient to move enough Republicans, and because he couldn’t count on congressional leaders to change any of that for him.

In a way, that outcome was the logical result of the utterly unconventional character of the Trump presidency.
.. Still, the difficulty in moving those conservatives also reflected the fact that some of them remain suspicious of Mr. Trump, who they think doesn’t really share their beliefs and didn’t do enough to push their principles into the health legislation.
.. He also might try to see whether he can find some of that bipartisanship that seemed possible shortly after he won the election. The one bigger issue where a convergence with Democrats has always seemed possible is a big program to improve American infrastructure.