Trump’s connections to Russia may be flimsy, but his character flaws continue to aid Democrats’ efforts to ‘resist’ his presidency.
By the end of last week Donald Trump was furious, and with good reason. A successful address to Congress, which even his left-wing critics agreed had made him look presidential, was quickly forgotten when a conveniently timed leak revived talk of his administration’s ties to Russia. The charges that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had concealed meetings with the Russian ambassador were flimsy at best, but they had the effect of setting off another tsunami of news coverage that encouraged Democrats to double down on their efforts to delegitimize the outcome of the 2016 election.
In response, Trump behaved in a characteristically Trumpian manner: He lashed out at his foes with a new, clearly unfounded charge of his own that President Obama had ordered his phones tapped during the campaign. Perhaps it was a clever attempt to take the heat off of Sessions. Or maybe it was just a case of the president venting his spleen. In any case, it served to completely squander all the political capital his speech to Congress had earned him.
All this leaves conservatives who remain Trump skeptics in a difficult position. Most on the right now support the president, either because they actually believe in his mix of populist and often less-than-conservative stands on domestic and foreign policy or because they think that the largely conservative government he has appointed will do far more good than harm and must thus be vigorously defended against liberals. A smaller faction, which might be characterized as anti-anti-Trump, remains disgusted with Trump but believes that arguments about his fitness are now moot and that the attempts to “resist” him are more odious than anything he is likely to do. A tiny minority remains unalterably opposed to him.
In theory, the Russia story ought to encourage Republicans and conservatives to rally around Trump, and in large part it has. While investigations of Russian activities intended to hobble Hillary Clinton are entirely appropriate and should be vigorously pursued, at the heart of this discussion is a smear: The implication that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians and that this joint effort resulted in a stolen election. This preposterous claim is almost certainly false. Even the anonymous intelligence-community officials whose leaks to the New York Times set off a wave of accusations against Trump conceded that there was no evidence that any such collusion took place, let alone proof that any Russian efforts changed the outcome of the election.
For conservatives, the impulse to defend Trump under these circumstances is overwhelming, all the more so because much of the disgust with Trump is rooted more in class than in ideology. Most of those who are beating the drums for the anti-Trump “resistance” are unable to separate their dim view of Trump’s behavior, which doesn’t conform to what we expect of our educated and governing classes, from the substantive issues he’s raised. Those who are still unreconciled to Trump’s Electoral College victory have often confused their contempt for him with the idea that he presents a genuine threat to democracy. That’s why discussions about his policies on border security, refugees, and immigration — policies on which reasonable people may disagree — have generated irresponsible liberal analogies to the Holocaust and Weimar Germany.
Since so many of the attacks on Trump’s policy decisions — as opposed to those on his tweets or offhand remarks — are inherently unreasonable and often, as is the case with the Russia story, conspiracy-minded, conservatives may feel themselves to be on solid ground in dismissing his critics.
By embracing conspiracy theories such as the one about Obama, he is fueling a belief that he is out of control.
But Trump’s accusation against Obama reminded us that the problem with the effort to separate the personal from the political in his case is that sometimes style is substance. Conservatives can point to Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court and the most conservative cabinet in memory, as well as his substantial efforts to roll back onerous federal regulations, as proof that the devil’s bargain they have made with him is paying off. But we know now that last week’s speech to Congress was merely a momentary respite, rather than the “presidential pivot” for which so many have waited in vain since before the campaign ended. As long as Trump remains Trump, the West Wing circus will never entirely close down. And that is a mortal threat to his chances of success.
Having won the presidency while continuing to misbehave on Twitter and treat honesty as merely an option rather than an obligation, Trump may think he can go on in the same mode forever. His supporters may think the same thing, and perhaps they’re right: He’s not the first president, after all, to display an allergy to the truth or disparage his critics. But the events of the last week cannot be dismissed as a cynical game played by Trump’s opponents. His chances of governing effectively and proving his critics wrong are slim unless he can stay on message and maintain an ability to mobilize the entire Republican party, rather than just his base, in defense of his policies. Democrats won’t beat Trump by going scorched-earth on their own. But he can beat himself by digging ever deeper holes to climb out of — the Obama wiretapping allegation is but one example — and distracting even his supporters from what he is actually doing that they like.
There may ultimately be nothing to the Russia story, and Trump’s case for his new travel ban and other actions may be strong. But what he fails to understand is that by embracing conspiracy theories such as the one about Obama, he is fueling a belief that he is out of control. If that belief continues to build, it will further strengthen and embolden the Democratic “resistance,” and it will undermine his ties with congressional Republicans and the anti-anti-Trump conservatives who are ready to oppose progressive attempts to delegitimize his government. Trump’s main problem is not so much his foes in the media or the Democrats but his own character. The struggle that will determine whether he is a successful president is his struggle with himself.
— Jonathan S. Tobin is a contributor to National Review Online. Follow him on Twitter @jonathans_tobin.