Source: Politics<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has finally delivered on his promise a decade ago: He has made Republicans \u201cso sick and tired of winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winning \u2014 a series of retributive primary challenges this month that settled scores up to five years old \u2014 has led to a fresh round of chest-thumping<\/a> from MAGA allies boasting about their victories in Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky.<\/p>\n Trump ended his vendetta spring Tuesday by dropping a two-stage MAGA bomb, backing Attorney General Ken Paxton for Senate in Texas on the same day he ushered Rep. Thomas Massie to the exits in Kentucky.<\/p>\n But the revenge tour is increasingly imperiling Trump\u2019s midterm agenda on the Hill.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because for every apostate ousted by Trump this month, there\u2019s a sign of not only his waning political capital on the Hill, but that his backward-focused endeavors have damaged his own legislative ambitions, leaving him a victim of his own primary success.<\/p>\n \u201cThose so-called victories over the last couple weeks are just a mirage. They are self-owns,\u201d said one senior Senate Republican operative, granted anonymity to speak candidly about frustration with the White House. \u201cWe’re not actually beating Democrats, and we’re not actually advancing legislation. Instead, gas is up 45% due to our actions and the President’s decision to go to war with Iran. He’s focused on the ballroom. He’s announced a $1.8 billion restitution fund with zero details or congressional authority to do so. It just is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n In just one day, a conquered \u2014 and, consequently, unbridled \u2014 Sen. Bill Cassidy joined Democrats to become the 50th yes vote on a war powers resolution, opposed Trump\u2019s ballroom funding in reconciliation and called Trump\u2019s freshly picked Paxton a \u201cfelon.\u201d And that was just day three of Cassidy unchained.<\/p>\n Cassidy is not alone. Trump\u2019s ballroom funding is stalled, the SAVE America Act is mired in the Senate and Majority Leader John Thune is pushing back on his desire to fire the parliamentarian. That\u2019s not to mention the pushback even from the likes of the friendlier senator from Louisiana, John Kennedy, who expressed doubt about the Justice Department\u2019s $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are still many, many months to go before the election, and this president is going to have to continue to deal and work with, and partner with, or battle with this group of lawmakers,\u201d Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told reporters Tuesday. \u201cEven though Bill Cassidy lost his primary, he is still a voting member of the Senate until January. \u2026 So the president may have just opened some opportunities for people.\u201d<\/p>\n Now Cornyn could join their ranks. After Trump endorsed Paxton, the senior Texas senator faces increasingly slim chances of surviving next week\u2019s runoff election. Should he lose, Cornyn will be liberated to vote his conscience \u2014 unmoved by threats of further political vengeance from Trump \u2014 for the final months of his term.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is the return on investment for Trump?\u201d said Greg Lamantia, a Texas businessman who supports Cornyn, about Trump\u2019s Paxton endorsement. \u201cI don\u2019t understand why you take this risk, versus sitting back and doing nothing. Now you’ve created an enemy for six months, when you have a razor-thin majority.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Come November, if Paxton loses to state Rep. James Talarico, this week and Trump feeling himself after victories in Indiana and Louisiana could be remembered as the week where he overreached.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the issues I hear about when I’m at home in the grocery store, in the hardware store, are not the same issues we’re talking about in Washington, so I think it’s really important that we prioritize what people are talking about,\u201d said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo).<\/p>\n That daylight between Trump\u2019s priorities and the top issues for voters is widening. The economy and cost of living remain voters\u2019 top priorities<\/a>, even as patience for the Iran war wavers. And though Trump has flexed his electoral muscle in primary after primary, his endorsement may hurt more than it helps in battleground races this November, according to a recent analysis from The POLITICO Poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to me his agenda is mostly vengeance,\u201d said former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who spent 15 months as a vocal Trump critic after deciding not to run for reelection<\/a> during Trump\u2019s first term. \u201cIt\u2019s not just those that he\u2019s going after he\u2019s gonna have to deal with \u2014 Massie and Cornyn and Cassidy \u2014 it’s anybody who\u2019s gotten past the filing deadline, or past their primary, and realizing that supporting a lot of what he wants is not good for the general election.\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of a month that put on full display Trump\u2019s dominance over his own party, his season of settling scores may not have advanced the ball toward November.<\/p>\n That dynamic could pose a problem for Republicans, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley told POLITICO. \u201cCongress doesn\u2019t do much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn November, voters are going to say to Congress, ‘What have you done for me?\u2019 And it’s not going to be enough to say that, ‘Well, you know, we liked some stuff President Trump did, but we didn’t do any of it,\u2019\u201d Hawley said. \u201cI mean, we better do some stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n What does it mean that Trump has vanquished his foes at the expense of his own agenda?<\/p>\n \u201cIt means President Trump and his team have completely lost sight of how DC operates and why the American people elected him in the first place,\u201d said the senior Senate Republican operative.<\/p>\n Last year, chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair<\/a> that she had a \u201cloose agreement that the score settling will end before the first 90 days are over.\u201d That was 395 days ago.<\/p>\n Dasha Burns and Ali Bianco contributed to this report.<\/p>\n