The Trump-McConnell Spat
If the GOP Congress fails, so does the Trump Presidency.
The damage from the GOP’s health-care debacle has only just begun, and the latest evidence is this week’s public spat between President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The big potential winner here is Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
.. But Mr. Trump didn’t help the Senate by failing to make a public case for the GOP reforms. Not once did he explain, for example, that paring back ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion for able-bodied adults would protect health care for the truly needy. His failure to master even basic policy details made him useless as a public advocate.
.. a major political risk from the health-care defeat is that Mr. Trump concludes he should start running against the GOP majority.
They might prefer to run in 2020 against Mr. Schumer than with Mr. McConnell.
.. They need each other in particular this autumn to
- raise the debt ceiling,
- press deregulation, and
- pass a budget and
- tax reform.
Failure on that agenda after the health-care fiasco will open the door to a Democratic House—which means nonstop anti-Trump investigations and perhaps impeachment. The best defense against mutual assured political destruction is legislative success in the fall.