Really good OpEd. Trump may have been a good negotiator on real estate deals, but he's not provided much evidence, so far, that he can translate these supposed skills into legislative victories. Many of our truly persuasive and deal-making Presidents have gotten their legislative agendas through Congress based largely on the strength of their ability to lead, persuade, and/or negotiate. LBJ was a master of this. Reagan also did a good job of it by coopting Speaker of the House O’Neill. Clinton did the same with New Gingrich on a variety of legislative objectives. That’s what true leaders do. That’s what true deal-makers do. I have fully expected Trump to do this as well, but he obviously doesn’t have the attention to detail to leverage the gravitas of his office to formulate and make deals to get his legislative agenda through Congress. From the link in the OP:
"Trump’s following of cult-like sycophants argue that the President’s own party is working against him. There is no doubt this is true. I won’t argue that. My response?
Too bad. Governing is HARD WORK. The man who claimed all through the primaries that he was the best choice because he could get things done no matter the composition of Congress because he “makes the best deals” has been found impotent in making any legislative impact at all. He seems to have expected everyone to just do whatever he wanted without question.
Obama passed Obamacare with ONLY Democrat votes, but even then it took months of lobbying members of his own party to vote for and pass the bill.
Passing a major bill takes laser-like focus for weeks or months. Trump can’t even focus on a single topic for an hour of tweeting. When he deregulated coal recently his tweets, if any, should have been focused on touting that, and ONLY that. Instead he spent the time making empty threats against NBC’s broadcasting license.
Trump should have spent the first month of his Administration getting the right people in place and firing the Obama holdovers, otherwise known as “draining the swamp.” Instead, far too many Obama appointees are still there while it took forever to get Trump’s cabinet in place, and then replaced as too many have been fired or resigned. So much for “hiring the best people.”
Then there should have been laser focus on repealing Obamacare and immigration reform, and they should have been plans resembling something he designed. Instead he blames Congress for not having a plan. While a legitimate complaint, he had no plan either."
