Trump has no idea how politics works
The president attempts to take his own party hostage
It's tough to grapple with the apparent fact that the president of the United States is a dolt. Liberals used to joke about George W. Bush's constant malapropisms, accidents, ignorance of geography, and so on. And while Bush was still the second-worst president in American history, one still had to admit he at least had a moderate helping of cunning.
President Trump, while he can advertise the desserts at his country club while talking about the latest bombings he's ordered, manifestly does not have the slightest clue about the basic mechanics of politics. Case in point: his latest threat to withhold payments to insurers under part of ObamaCare, supposedly to force Democrats to "start calling me and negotiating." It's a truly bewildering misread of the state of politics.
What he's talking about are "CSR payments," a subsidy for insurers that helps them defray the cost of insuring low-income people on the exchanges. (I would guess the odds that someone only just now explained to him what these are is about 100 percent.) Republicans, as part of their anti-ObamaCare lawsuit frenzy in years past, ginned up a legal case against these payments, arguing that they were illegal because Congress didn't have to specifically appropriate the money every year.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It's in keeping with the basic Republican legal framework: "If Democrats do it, that means it's unconstitutional." But if they could have gotten their co-partisan hacks in the federal courts to agree, they could have refused to appropriate and thus dealt the law a sharp blow.
The lawsuit has rather faded from view lately, as Republicans now hold power in every branch of government, and the real motivation for conservative ObamaCare hatred — Obama himself — has left office. However, it is still winding its way through the federal courts. That was apparently what inspired Trump to make his threat.
There are two howling errors here.
First, Trump still doesn't seem to grasp that Republicans control both the House and the Senate. Under Obama, Republican hostage-taking tactics like shutting down the government or threatening national default had at least a logic to them (despite being violently unpatriotic and eventually backfiring), because Obama — who was, let me emphasize, from the other party — was president. By threatening not to raise the debt ceiling, the House GOP caucus put a gun to the head of the world economy in an attempt to get Obama to agree to do things he wouldn't have otherwise done.
The reason Trump's health-care reform flopped, however, is that House Republicans could not agree to pass it. It didn't even make it to the Senate, where Democratic votes might have conceivably been needed. The GOP has a large House majority — Democrats could not possibly stop them, should they decide to vote something through. All they did was pressure the more moderate wing of the GOP caucus to not delete their constituents' health insurance, which worked. The people who would be politically hurt by breaking ObamaCare are Republicans in swing districts.
In other words, Trump is effectively threatening to take his own party hostage. That doesn't actually work.
That ties into the second error: a misread of the basic directions of political preference. Broadly speaking, Democrats want more generous government programs; Republicans want the opposite. Threatening to undermine ObamaCare — making it work less well — to get them to pass TrumpCare is to threaten the opposite of what Democrats want, so as to get them to agree to do something that is also the opposite of what they want. That's not how negotiation works either!
What's more, it is beyond obvious that the best move for Democrats is to sit back and enjoy watching Republicans being blamed for everything bad that happens for once. As I have argued before, with full control of government Republicans now own health-care policy. They can either pass their own law and be held responsible for whatever that does, or they can fail and be held responsible for not doing anything.
I know this is Schoolhouse Rock-levels of analysis, but that is unfortunately where we are as a country. We're in for another couple years, at least, of an ignoramus of a president, lounging around and playing golf, constantly mangling not just trivial minutiae but the basic facts of which party wants what.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.
-
'The House under GOP rule has become a hostile workplace'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The Shohei Ohtani gambling scandal is about more than bad bets
In The Spotlight The firestorm surrounding one of baseball's biggest stars threatens to upend a generational legacy and professional sports at large
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Feds raid Diddy homes in alleged sex trafficking case
Speed Read Homeland Security raided the properties of hip hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Xi-Biden meeting: what's in it for both leaders?
Today's Big Question Two superpowers seek to stabilise relations amid global turmoil but core issues of security, trade and Taiwan remain
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Will North Korea take advantage of Israel-Hamas conflict?
Today's Big Question Pyongyang's ties with Russia are 'growing and dangerous' amid reports it sent weapons to Gaza
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published