I imagine there are a lot of Republicans who when Trump won felt confident that a Republican Congress, a Republican Senate, a Republican President and a leaning Republican Supreme Court would give them every damned thing on their Republican Wish List. Those folks have to be squirming now at the infighting in that power bloc, and at the schoolyard tweets and dishonest rhetoric of their prez.
They may still get most of what they want but it sure ain't going to come as easy as they'd hoped. And there has to be a lot of concern out there that any day now, Trump will do something illogical (or impeachable) that will further derail Republican unity of purpose. It would not be much easier for our side if Democrats controlled everything. Total victories are a nice fantasy but not realistic. And now, this…
- Kevin Drum says Trump has finally achieved something. He's driven up the deficit by a trillion dollars. Trump will respond to this news the way he responds to every bit of news that isn't an awesome triumph. He'll denounce it as "fake news" and change nothing.
- Did the Trump campaign collude with Russia and Russian hackers? A lot of people are saying the evidence is thin. Jonathan Chait says it's thicker than they think.
- The whole slap fight that Trump is having with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski strikes me as one of those incidents where no one wins because everyone looks like an ass. But if you want to follow the latest, here it is.
- And here's John Cassidy with an overview and a sane look at this silly skirmish.
- Jeffrey Toobin discusses why the National Enquirer is so utterly in-the-tank for Trump. It must be tough for the folks at the Enquirer. To sell their paper, they have to somehow out-lie Donald.
Trump has already started fund-raising for his 2020 re-election bid. A lot of folks think it's way premature. I think it's wise. It's a lot easier to raise money when your approval rating is at 38% than it will be when it's at 23%.