By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, October 26, 2017<\/p>\n
\u201cBig News \u2014 Budget just passed!\u201d President Trump tweeted Thursday, after sharing this uncharacteristically sage nugget: \u201cDo not underestimate the UNITY within the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump is provably wrong about much in the fact-based universe, disgorging on average five false statements daily<\/a> since taking office, according to the painstaking tally by long-suffering fact checkers. But don\u2019t fool yourself into thinking he\u2019s lying about one very important thing.<\/p>\n After passionate denunciations in the last week, by former president George W. Bush and three GOP senators, of Trump\u2019s assault on truth, decency, and democracy, you might think there are cracks in his support. You would be wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cI called it a love fest, it was almost a love fest. It was a love fest. Standing ovation .\u00a0.\u00a0. There\u2019s great unity in the Republican Party,\u201d Trump rambled of his lunch with Senate Republicans, and yes, there were ovations.<\/p>\n Trump is also deflecting attention from the Russia probe, Niger, Puerto Rico. The GOP message machine is behind him: House Republicans opened two new investigations into Hillary Clinton (remember that lady no longer running for president?) and Fox News is gleefully devoting prime time to weaponized disinformation in all-caps: \u201cEXPOSED: DEMS & THE REAL RUSSIA CONNECTION\u201d; \u201cTRUMP: URANIUM SCANDAL JUST LIKE \u2018WATERGATE\u2019 \u201d; and \u201cHILLARY\u2019S RUSSIA SCANDAL.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s disapproval ratings are near 60 percent<\/a>, and majorities see the president as reckless, dishonest, uncompassionate, and unstable, according to a new POLITICO\/Morning Consult poll.<\/a> What this obscures is that his support among Republicans remains strong; 77 percent of party faithful in the same poll approve of his performance. So it should come as no surprise their elected representatives do too. Thanks to redistricting, most come from reliably red districts.<\/p>\n Trump is absolutely right that there\u2019s no cavalry coming after Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake\u2019s cri de coeur<\/a> on the Senate floor calling out \u201cour complicity in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs,\u201d \u201cflagrant disregard for truth and decency,\u201d and behavior that\u2019s \u201cdangerous to a democracy.\u201d In an op-ed<\/a>, Flake compared the Trump era to the terrorizing reign of Senator Joe McCarthy.<\/p>\n Look no further than Trump\u2019s interview with Fox Business on Wednesday for evidence of the slide to Trumpism. The president said he spoke to China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping, and \u201ccongratulated him on his big victory.\u201d<\/p>\n That \u201cvictory\u201d was a rubber-stamp reappointment by the Community Party. Trump has made no secret of his admiration for authoritarian strongmen from Russia to the Philippines. Sounding more wistful than critical, Trump added of Xi, \u201cSome people might call him the king of China.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Flake, Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee has excoriated Trump as unfit for the presidency and referred to the White House as \u201cadult day care.\u201d Both senators were liberated to speak their minds by the truth-serum decision not to seek reelection. Trump wasn\u2019t wrong when he said they had scant chance in states that have lurched toward the president\u2019s vision of America. And his critics\u2019 rejection goes only so far; both have backed Trump\u2019s agenda in Congress.<\/p>\n Republicans ignore his uncivil discourse and threats to foundational principles of democracy so long as he\u2019s their ticket to eyes-on-the-prize goals like lowering taxes on corporations and the rich.<\/p>\n Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell made no secret of the sauce keeping the GOP together. \u201cIf there\u2019s anything that unifies Republicans, it\u2019s tax reform,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been looking for the opportunity to do this literally for years. We now have a president who will sign it. .\u00a0.\u00a0. [W]e\u2019re going to concentrate on what our agenda is and not any of these other distractions.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t expect Republicans to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him anytime soon. As long as he serves their purposes, it\u2019s party over country.<\/p>\n