When he won his party’s nomination for the presidency, the mystique of Donald Trump grew by leaps and bounds. When he won the election few thought he could, to his followers and supporters Donald Trump grew larger than his already larger than life persona. The “Trump agenda” was on fire.
When he submitted his TrumpCare proposal and told Republican lawmakers to get behind it, he believed he had arrived, and that he would be obeyed. But he wasn’t. This pin prick of mutiny may end up deflating his presidency. At the very least, it will have long-lasting repercussions for Mr. Trump, as a handful of party lawmakers have become emboldened by their ability to hold the rest of the Congress in check. Shades of Tea Party obstructionism.
Two months into his presidency, Trump has been forced to face the hard reality of being president. With an approval rating of only 37% before yesterday, the forced abandonment of his administration’s first major legislative initiative could cause an even greater dip in his popularity. The proposed TrumpCare bill needed to be canned– but with a Republican president and a Republican-controlled Congress in power? This could even set the stage for an intra-party shift in power. If Trump doesn’t end up kowtowing to the influences of money people like the Koch Brothers, he will likely find himself spending the rest of his presidency struggling to find his presidential voice.
You can’t count The Donald out. The defeat of TrumpCare might not be a defeat of Trump the man– or even Trump the president. But it certainly is a sign: the honeymoon is over, and the Trump agenda as we know it is officially in trouble.
