Trump hangs his own party out to dry

Trump just ensured that the GOP would own all of his unpopular moves.

You’ve all seen the unhinged Oval Office fight this week where Trump and Vance handed a gift to Vladimir Putin in the form of a shouting match with Ukrainian president Zelensky, culminating into Zelensky’s ejection from the White House, peace talks being called off, and Russia getting a virtual assurance that American aid to Ukraine is all but eliminated. The implications here are obviously massive: not only could this stifle Ukraine’s hopes of winning the war, which would mean more death and destruction at the hands of Putin’s murderous regime, but without the US, the future of NATO (the post-WW2 alliance responsible for the longest period of peace and prosperity in modern history) is suddenly in peril. We could enter into a new modern era of imperialism, wherein Russia seeks to rebuild the USSR, China is emboldened to invade Taiwan, and even the United States seeks to annex territory in Panama or Greenland or Mexico or Canada. Yes, that sounds insane, but then again so did an insurrection at the US Capitol.

But geopolitical and humanitarian implications aside, just as consequential are the political impacts. Despite Trump’s insistence on barreling ahead with this move, the reality is that it’s enormously unpopular. Republican firm 1892 Polling surveyed solely Republican voters. According to the poll:

69% of respondents said they agreed Russia is the aggressor, 60% said they would support continued weapons assistance under certain circumstances and 71% say they’re more likely to support aid for Ukraine when told Russia has kidnapped more than 19,000 Ukrainian children.

Again, those are Republicans. Democrats are even more sympathetic to Ukraine, meaning that Trump has not only undermined the global world order to position the US alongside autocracies like Russia, China, and North Korea, but he’s done so in stark opposition to even his own base.

It would be one thing if Trump jumped on this grenade alone. But Trump doesn’t do anything alone; he requires buy-in from his entire party. Meaning not only is this lame duck president engaging in deeply unpopular behavior, but he’s forcing the rest of his party to do this same. In other words, it’s not only Trump who’s kowtowing to the Kremlin; here’s his Deputy Secretary of Defense nominee, Stephen Feinberg, putting on full display what this servility looks like in practice:

It is now sacrilegious to even acknowledge objective reality regarding the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine. His insistence on total fealty from his conference means everyone gets to be covered with the stink from his unpopular policies as he is.

And Trump saddling his party with baggage isn’t limited to the Russia-Ukraine issue. Trump has empowered Elon to run roughshod over the government and fire thousands of employees at the NIH and EPA and CFPB and USAID; to allow his band of teenagers unfettered access to our most sensitive private data; to shut down or cripple entire agencies— all of which is also remarkably unpopular. A CNN poll found that 54% of Americans said that "giving Elon Musk a prominent role in [Trump's] administration" was a "bad thing," while only 28 percent said it was a "good thing." According to Pew, only 11% of Americans have a very favorable view of Musk. And yet still, the Republicans will defend Elon, because fealty to the Godking must be total.

There’s also the issue of the budget resolution that Republicans just passed; it’ll mean that Medicaid gets cut, it’ll mean that Food Stamps get cut, it’ll mean the deficit explodes, all so that millionaires and billionaires can get a tax cut. That is yet another unpopular move; 71% of Trump voters oppose cuts to Medicaid. But Trump supports it, which means that every single House Republican (save for Thomas Massie) voted for it. And now they have the unique privilege of going back to their districts and getting cut down by their constituents at town halls across the country. But you know the rule: Trump the lame duck issues his clarion call, and his very-much-not-lame duck colleagues have to throw their weight behind his policies because they’ve contracted their power to him.

The reality is that Republicans are doing Democrats’ work for them by lining up behind the least popular agenda that you could imagine. Far from Trump trying to set his own party up for success moving forward, he’s instead dragging them down by forcing them to back policies that Americans despise. Trump is busying hanging albatrosses around the necks of those in his conference. As they say, don’t interrupt your enemy while they’re making a mistake.