By Robert Costa, Phillip Rucker and Ashley Parker, October 9, 2017<\/p>\n
Frustrated by his Cabinet and angry that he has not received enough credit for his handling of three successive hurricanes, President Trump is now lashing out, rupturing alliances and imperiling his legislative agenda, numerous White House officials and outside advisers said Monday.<\/p>\n
In a matter of days, Trump has torched bridges all around him, nearly imploded an informal deal with Democrats to protect young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, and plunged himself into the culture wars on issues ranging from birth control to the national anthem.<\/p>\n
In doing so, Trump is laboring to solidify his standing with his populist base and return to the comforts of his campaign \u2014 especially after the embarrassing defeat<\/a> of Sen. Luther Strange in last month\u2019s Alabama GOP special election, despite the president\u2019s trip there to campaign with the senator.<\/p>\n Sen. Bob Corker\u2019s brutal assessment<\/a> of Trump\u2019s fitness for office \u2014 warning that the president\u2019s reckless behavior could launch the nation \u201con the path to World War III\u201d \u2014 also hit like a thunderclap inside the White House, where aides feared possible ripple effects among other Republicans on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n After a caustic volley of Twitter insults between Trump and Corker, a Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, few GOP leaders came to the president\u2019s defense Monday \u2014 though few sided openly with Corker, either. The most vocal Trump defender was the one under the president\u2019s employ, Vice President Pence.<\/p>\n Trump in recent days has shown flashes of fury and left his aides, including White House chief of staff John F. Kelly, scrambling to manage his outbursts. He has been frustrated in particular with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was reported last week to have earlier called the president a \u201cmoron.\u201d<\/a> Trump\u2019s Sunday morning Twitter tirade against Corker caught staffers by surprise, although the president had been brooding over the senator\u2019s comment a few days earlier about Trump\u2019s \u201cchaos\u201d endangering the nation.<\/p>\n One Trump confidant likened the president to a whistling teapot, saying that when he does not blow off steam, he can turn into a pressure cooker and explode. \u201cI think we are in pressure cooker territory,\u201d said this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly.<\/p>\n This portrait of the president increasingly isolated in the capital city is based on interviews with 18 White House officials, outside advisers and other Trump associates.<\/p>\n [Trump attacks Corker, who responds by calling the White House an \u2018adult day care\u2019<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n In a late-afternoon, unsolicited email to reporters Monday, Pence\u2019s office blasted out a blanket response under the vice president\u2019s name addressing \u201ccriticisms of the president.\u201d The statement bemoaned \u201cempty rhetoric and baseless attacks\u201d against Trump while touting his handling of global threats, from Islamic State terrorists to North Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what American leadership on the world stage looks like and no amount of criticism at home can diminish those results,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n But Pence\u2019s words did little to reassure some Trump allies, who fear that the president\u2019s feud with Corker could cause more trouble for the administration and further unravel threadbare relationships on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n One Trump loyalist \u2014 noting that Corker has many more friends in the Senate than Trump does \u2014 said the rift could dash chances for a tax law overhaul or other meaningful legislation. \u201cHis presidency could be doomed,\u201d said this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to alienate the president or his staff.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been watching the slow-motion breakup of the Republican Party, and Trump is doing what he can to speed it up,\u201d said Patrick Caddell, a veteran pollster who has worked with Stephen K. Bannon<\/a>, Trump\u2019s former chief strategist, who now runs Breitbart News, a conservative website.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump is firmly placing himself on the outside, trying to become an almost independent president,\u201d Caddell said. \u201cHe knows that many people will be with him, that he helps himself when he\u2019s not seen as the Republican president. But what about his program? That\u2019s the question \u2014 and possibly the cost of what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside the White House, reaction to Corker\u2019s comments has been mixed. Some Trump aides believe it is dangerous for the president to fight with Corker, the chairman of a powerful Senate committee who is not running for reelection and therefore feels he has nothing to lose.<\/p>\n Other Trump aides blame Corker for what they consider an act of betrayal, arguing that he started the feud in a bid for relevance by a lame-duck lawmaker. They also accuse Corker of hypocrisy, noting that he was chummy with Trump and did not voice any concerns about his leadership style when he thought he might be picked as vice president or secretary of state.<\/p>\n Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax and a Trump friend, said: \u201cDonald Trump never truly severs relationships. There is always a dialogue. And with Corker, this isn\u2019t a total endpoint. Trump sees relationships as negotiations, and that\u2019s what they\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n Many in the White House say they appreciate the disciplined structure Kelly has implemented, but it has left Trump without the free-flowing conversations with staff and outsiders that he had come to relish. These familiar faces often buoyed Trump\u2019s mood and gave him a safe sounding board, even if they at times interfered with the workings of the government.<\/p>\n Trump is also without his longtime aide-de-camp and former head of security, Keith Schiller, who departed the White House this fall as director of Oval Office operations. Schiller was a constant at Trump\u2019s side for years and was adept at soothing his foul moods. His absence has left Trump with few generational peers with whom he feels comfortable venting about his staff or his rivals, or just talking about sports, according to some of the president\u2019s friends.<\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, has been seeking regular counsel from friends outside the government, including investor Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who chaired his inauguration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Among some in Trump\u2019s circle, Barrack has been buzzed about as a possible replacement for Kelly, should tensions between the president and his top aide become unsustainable. But people familiar with Barrack\u2019s thinking said he feels he can best serve Trump as a friend and outside adviser, rather than as a member of the White House staff.<\/p>\n The president has given no indication publicly that he is mulling another change and over the weekend heaped praise on Kelly. \u201cJohn Kelly is one of the best people I\u2019ve ever worked with,\u201d Trump told reporters Saturday. \u201cHe\u2019s doing an incredible job, and he told me for the last two months he loves it more than anything he\u2019s ever done. .\u2009.\u2009. He will be here, in my opinion, for the entire seven remaining years.\u201d<\/p>\n [\u2018Death spiral\u2019: Tillerson makes nice but may not last long with Trump<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n Still, Trump is facing political head winds, including from his base.\u00a0The Alabama Senate primary last month, in which a far-right challenger<\/a>defeated a more establishment Republican whom the president had endorsed, served as a warning flare for Trump\u2019s team, highlighting the risk he could run if he alienates the core supporters who helped lift him to electoral victory.<\/p>\n The president has groused to numerous White House aides about his concerns over his popularity with \u201cmy people\u201d \u2014 his base. He blames the Republican establishment and others for failing to enact his agenda and making him look feckless, and is unhappy with losing in Alabama, according to people briefed on White House deliberations.<\/p>\n Trump also made it known to several people that he wished to have a rally in North Carolina over the weekend and not just a fundraiser \u2014 but he ultimately flew down for only the fundraiser, spending just two hours on the ground in Greensboro. Trump complained that he wished he had gotten back out in front of the rowdy crowds he loves, these people said.<\/p>\n \u201cDonald Trump got elected with minority support from the American electorate, and most of his efforts thus far are focused on energizing and solidifying the 40\u00a0percent of Americans who were with him, primarily by attacking the 60 percent who were not,\u201d Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. \u201cThat is great for his supporters, but it makes it very difficult to accomplish anything in a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s political calculus is complicated by Bannon\u2019s return to his previous role at the helm of Breitbart. Now working to forward a nationalist agenda from outside the confines of the administration, Bannon has vowed war<\/a> against any Republican lawmakers he believes are insufficiently conservative or who fail to help push through the agenda he and Trump outlined during the campaign.<\/p>\n Bannon is recruiting GOP primary challengers in nearly all of the 2018 Senate races, looking for candidates who could defeat Republicans he views as too establishment and highlight the president\u2019s stances on issues such as immigration and trade.<\/p>\n The White House effort to woo back the populist wing of the party after stumbling in the Alabama race has been mixed. When Trump advisers contacted Breitbart writers Sunday to highlight a list of hard-line immigration principles<\/a> the administration had just released, there was little enthusiasm for the White House\u2019s outreach and skepticism of Trump\u2019s commitment to combating illegal immigration, according to two people familiar with the exchanges.<\/p>\n Even the Trump family has become a flash point<\/a>. On Monday, the president\u2019s first and third wives \u2014 Ivana and Melania, respectively \u2014 engaged in a public spat.<\/p>\n In an interview with ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America\u201d to promote her new book, \u201cRaising Trump<\/a>,\u201d Ivana Trump, the mother of the president\u2019s three eldest children, said: \u201cI\u2019m basically first Trump wife. Okay? I\u2019m first lady.\u201d<\/p>\n The actual first lady, Melania Trump, did not let the slight go unanswered. Her spokeswoman at the White House, Stephanie Grisham, issued a statement dismissing Ivana\u2019s comments as \u201cattention-seeking and self-serving noise.\u201d<\/p>\n