FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

Trump keeps butting heads with his own party

Donald Trump has been butting heads with prominent members of his own party.

To get this weekly Trump update sent to your inbox, subscribe here

From pretty much every Democrat in Congress to the widow of a soldier killed in Niger, Trump seems to be feuding with anyone and everyone at this point. He’s also been butting heads with prominent members of his own party.

As Trump works to get what would be Republicans’ first major legislative accomplishment through Congress — a $1.5 trillion tax cut — the president is facing opposition among his own ranks. Most notably, Sen. Bob Corker asked the White House to step aside as let Congress handle a tax overhaul. Sen. Jeff Flake, who announced his retirement this week, joined in, too.

Advertisement

A taxing time for Trump Day 273 — Oct. 20

The president applauded the Senate’s passage of a budget plan on Thursday that paves the way for a $1.5 trillion tax cut, which would be Trump and Republicans’ first successful major piece of legislation since he took office in January. Though Trump said the cuts would be “the biggest in the history of our country,” they would actually rank in fifth place.

A twist: Trump sent out some tweets Day 274 — Oct. 21

Trump kept up with his favorite Saturday tradition: repeatedly and angrily tweeting. Throughout the day, the president sent out about a dozen tweets on a range of topics. The importance of getting tax cuts approved, but he also applauded a list of his own accomplishments (though he cited the Second Amendment, which was passed in 1791).

Donald the Dodger Day 275 — Oct. 22

Without mentioning Trump’s name, Arizona Sen. John McCain continued his feud with the president by criticizing Vietnam draft dodgers who “found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur.” Trump infamously used a doctor’s note about bone spurs in his heels as an excuse to avoid deployment.

A taste of his own medicine Day 277 — Oct. 24

The president spent the morning tweeting out insults at Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the president’s latest intra-party nemesis, who he christened him “liddle’ Bob Corker.” After Corker said he wanted the White House to step aside and let the big kids in Congress handle tax reform, Trump tweeted that Corker couldn’t even “get elected dogcatcher.”

Advertisement

Corker and Trump came face to face later in the day at a presumably awkward lunch where Trump tried to woo GOP senators to support his tax reform plan, which the president has accused Corker of opposing. Corker, who announced he wouldn’t seek re-election at the end of September, called the meeting “uneventful.”

Another Republican senator, Jeff Flake of Arizona, publicly lambasted Trump that same day on the Senate floor. Flake announced he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2018 and said that he could no longer be “complicit” with President Trump. He also made the rounds on morning news programs and penned a Washington Post op-ed condemning Trump.

“Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as ‘telling it like it is,’ when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified,” Flake said on the Senate floor.

Trump, of course, later responded with a series of tweets insulting both Flake and Corker for not running for reelection because they can’t win without him. He then bragged about getting a standing ovation, although it’s unclear when.

“Big news” Day 279 — Oct. 26

Trump returned to Twitter to announce “big news:” the budget plan just passed. The bill, which avoids a filibuster from Democrats on the tax bill that Republicans expect to release next week, had already passed the Senate earlier in the week and narrowly made it through the House.