Trump-led Turmoil in Washington Not Like Any Other

WASHINGTON — With a key Republican senator openly worried about President Donald Trump precipitating a nuclear war and the president feuding with his secretary of state, the Trump administration is engulfed by the type of turmoil not seen in any presidency of the modern era.

Not only is the chasm widening between Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill, but Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., also told The New York Times that Trump behaves as if he is running a "reality show." Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, fears Trump could set the United States "on the path to World War III" with his threats against North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report in Washington, pointed out that during the 1964 presidential campaign, Democrats took advantage of voter fears that Republican nominee Barry Goldwater might impulsively start a nuclear war.

"But a sitting Senate chair of the Foreign Relations Committee talking about a sitting president of the United States? That's really, really unusual," Rothenberg said.

Corker's jarring comments took place as Trump appeared to undercut Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's effort to soothe the tense nuclear crisis with North Korea. Trump tweeted that Tillerson was "wasting his time," a tweet issued just days after the State Department denied that Tillerson privately called the president a "moron."

The mounting turmoil capped off a chaotic nine months of a Trump presidency that has been plagued by a high number of personnel departures, including U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, White House chief of staff Reince Preibus, White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, chief strategist Steve Bannon and White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

"There's no precedent for this," said Evan Thomas, who has written biographies of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and President Richard Nixon.

"Chaos in government is normal in that there is ... always a lot of tugging and pulling," Thomas said. But, he added, "This is a whole new dimension because we have never had a president who was remotely like Trump who seems to be operating entirely on impulse, and he's got the rest of the world reacting."

John A. Farrell, author of the book "Richard Nixon — The Life," said he did not "think it's like hideously bad, but what's worrisome is it all seems to be self-inflicted."

Those who have been close to Trump say the commotion is because Trump wants to govern in a dramatically different style. Barry Bennett, who served as a senior adviser to Trump's campaign last year, said that "the insiders all play together nicely and they meet in the back rooms and they strike the deals and tell us only as much as they want us to know."

"There is no playbook for an anti-Washington candidate," said Bennett, also a former adviser to Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. "There are going to be battles. There is going to be bloodshed. But I take it as a cost of doing business."

What makes the current chaos so different is that Trump seems to delight in Twitter attacks or mocking Republicans and members of his administration. "The president has normalized government by Twitter. That cannot be good," Thomas said.

Unlike many Washington fights, which have little meaning for everyday Americans, voters are paying attention. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, said that during the August recess, people told him they were "exhausted" by the daily pandemonium and the blistering tweets.

"They want to pay attention because they have to know what's going on, but at the same time, it's exhausting to try to follow everything going on," Ryan said. "He is intentionally, and I think that's the main word — intentionally — causing strife and chaos and everything else," adding that Trump "feeds off of it. He consumes it."

Some Ohio Republicans such as Portman are engaged in the delicate challenge of supporting Corker — who is not seeking re-election — without alienating Trump. Without mentioning the president, Portman called Corker "a leader in Congress on issues as diverse as deficit reduction and combating terrorism, and he is a man of unwavering integrity."

Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, said he's "not interested in getting involved in distractions," adding that he would "continue to do the work that the American people are depending on us to do."

"That's why I'm keeping my head down and continuing to work hard, and not worrying about personality clashes and other drama portrayed in the media," Johnson said.

By contrast, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Jefferson Township, complained of Trump's "erratic behavior, Twitter obsession and fondness to bully enemies, allies and Americans."

In his typical fashion, Trump is holding congressional Republicans responsible for the deepening split with the administration. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters last week that Congress has "alienated" itself "by not actually getting the job done that the people of this country elected them to do."

Trump has made clear that he is willing to ignore congressional Republicans if he can strike a deal with Democrats on some issues.

"What we have seen is a new triangulation kind of playbook more modeled after the Clinton presidency," Bennett said. "When the establishment cannot yield a majority, you'll have to find a majority in new ways."

Others are reassured because Trump has assembled a stable, experienced national security team headed by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster and White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general.

"So far, the system has done a pretty good job of containing him," Thomas said. "Despite all the hand-wringing in the press, the system has bent, but not broken."

Ryan, the Niles Democrat, said he has "a lot of confidence in the people around the president with regard to the national security team ... and I'm less inclined to think that things will spin out of control too quickly.

"But," Ryan acknowledged, "I'm a heck of a lot more worried about it today than I was a year ago or 10 years ago."

This article was originally published by The Columbus Dispatch on Ovtober 17, 2017.