President Trump’s tight grip on the Republican Party is being openly challenged by the powerful network of ideological conservatives linked to billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, splaying out long-simmering tensions over the party’s future just months before the midterm elections.
Trump on Tuesday dismissed the mounting criticism of his trade and immigration policies from Koch and his allies as the battle cry of a faction that has “become a total joke in real Republican circles.”
“I don’t need their money or bad ideas,” Trump wrote on Twitter, adding, “I have beaten them at every turn.”The spigot of sweet, sweet Koch Cash has already been shut off for one Trumper:
On Monday, the Koch network announced that it does not plan to support Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) in his campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who is running for reelection in a state that Trump won by more than 35 percentage points. Trump held a campaign rally for Cramer in June.We are fervently hoping for a double knock- out in this Koch v. Trump match.
Meanwhile, we should be grateful (?) that the Republican Party is mainly comprised of mouth- breathing incompetents:
When the House reconvenes, the GOP plans to devote a significant amount of the limited time it has left before fiscal 2019 begins to three tax cut bills that have no chance of being enacted any time soon because…wait for it…the Republican-controlled Senate has already said it’s not interested.
And none of this even begins to anticipate what the House Republicans who are running for reelection and think they will need to energize the Trump base will do in September as the Manafort trial and Cohen investigations continue and as the Mueller probe moves forward.
In other words, this year’s legislative crunch time is about to get very real but House Republicans have little leadership, no plan, a very divided caucus, are very likely to be distracted and are relying on a notoriously unreliable Donald Trump to do the right thing.
This is almost a textbook definition of political and legislative chaos.97 days until the mid- terms.
