They say timing is everything, but for President Donald Trump, it’s increasingly becoming a political liability on Capitol Hill.
Frustration with Trump is growing among congressional Republicans, who say a string of poorly timed announcements from the White House has repeatedly upended their legislative plans, sparked intraparty battles, delayed major bills, and contributed to the first-ever lapse of a key national security authority.
Last month, the administration’s rollout of a proposed $1.776 anti-weaponization fund drew swift condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans, forcing GOP leaders to delay passage of their reconciliation bill until acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed that the compensation fund was dead.
Because of the timing of the initial announcement — just days before a reconciliation vote-a-rama — Democrats were able to force tough votes in the Senate and open up vulnerable Republicans to new attacks on the reconciliation bill, largely overshadowing the money GOP lawmakers had supplied for immigration enforcement.
Earlier this month, Trump’s decision to install Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence triggered bipartisan backlash and helped sink an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, producing the first expiration in the authority’s nearly 18-year history.
Lawmakers are still in a standoff over an extension.
And Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race — over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn — deepened intraparty tensions and angered some Republicans who had already backed Cornyn.
Privately, many Republicans say the White House has repeatedly undercut them at pivotal moments.
“The most common thought of most Republicans I’ve talked to is he doesn’t give a shit about the legislative branch and he pays no attention to anything going on that we’re doing because all of the actions he has taken has done nothing but been unhelpful to us putting stuff on his desk or keeping a lot of our government agencies open,” one House Republican told MS NOW, requesting anonymity to discuss the internal sentiments.
“Everything is timed so perfectly that it’s like they sit around in the White House and think to themselves when is the worst possible time to do this — and then they do it,” this Republican added.
Another House Republican had similar thoughts, saying Trump’s greatest strength is “unwavering determination and confidence,” but that his greatest weakness is “when he plows ahead without recognition Congress has a role in Republican form of government.”
The lawmaker said passage of the GOP’s reconciliation bill last year, which required close coordination between both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, was “the model.”
“Not random decisions and endorsements pissing folks off,” this GOP lawmaker said.
A third House Republican was more succinct: “It’s pretty self-evident, right? You don’t need to speculate — these decisions are impacting legislative progress here.”
But these curveballs aren’t just hampering the GOP’s agenda and leading to private gripes. Some Republicans openly acknowledge that Trump’s timing is making their lives harder.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., was clear with MS NOW that “the president’s the president.”
“He can announce his initiatives whenever he wants,” Kennedy said. But he was also clear that some of those announcements have had consequences on Capitol Hill.
“Did the recent initiatives that he’s announced with respect to Mr. Pulte, the anti-weaponization fund — did that impact the votes?” Kennedy asked.
He answered his own question: “Yes.”
The lack of coordination — and the resulting irritation — has spilled into public view in recent weeks.
Last month, when the Department of Justice first announced the anti-weaponization fund, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that “it would’ve been nice” if the White House had “consulted” with lawmakers.
“I think they probably would’ve gotten plenty of advice from lots of folks about it,” Thune said.
On FISA, Trump’s timing has been bad in two respects: First with the Pulte appointment, and then with his nomination of Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence.
The Pulte appointment greatly complicated a FISA extension, with Democrats saying they won’t support a deal until Trump pulls Pulte from the acting position. But Republicans were also peeved that Trump waited to announce his intention to nominate Clayton until after the House had already left town for a week-long recess and as senators were rushing out the door.
Had the announcement come a little sooner, they said, there’s a chance Democrats would’ve dropped their blockade against the surveillance authority and Congress could have prevented the lapse.
“If Clayton had come even 24 hours sooner, the week may have ended differently than it did,” a senior Senate GOP aide told MS NOW.
Some Republicans say it comes down to better coordination between Congress and the White House.
“I just wish there was a little more talking to people so you get feedback,” retiring Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb, said. “I’ve learned as a commander it’s good to get feedback and hear what the downside to something is, because maybe it’s something you haven’t thought of.”
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He tied the ill-timed announcements to November’s midterm elections.
“I just wish he’d be a little thoughtful, because if he wants a Democrat House, he’s got to be more thoughtful,” Bacon said. “It does hurt.”
Republicans, however, aren’t holding their breath that the president will adjust course. Trump arrived in Washington as a disrupter, many lawmakers note, and he has proven to be an unpredictable leader during his years in the White House.
“It’s the status quo,” another House Republican said. “It’s going to happen, and then it’s going to be corrected, and then it limps through, and then we move on to the next one.”
Whether the poorly timed play calls are intentional or not depends on who you ask.
As the Senate neared hour 15 of its most recent vote-a-rama — around 1 a.m. — Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she doesn’t think Trump considers Congress when he makes announcements, a dynamic that makes everyone’s life harder.
“I don’t think he thinks about the impact on us, and the timing,” she said of Trump. “I just don’t think he thinks about it.”
And when pressed on whether he considers what lawmakers do on a day-to-day basis, Murkowski said, “I don’t think he’s connecting that, which is unfortunate, because it really has had impact.”
But not everyone agrees that it’s a matter of carelessness.
One of the previously quoted House Republicans hypothesized that Trump’s actions are intentional.
“I don’t think he’s dumb,” this GOP lawmaker said. “I think he does a lot of this stuff on purpose, and I think he’s trying to undermine our institutions, and it’s setting some really bad precedents.”
“We all know the president talks to one group of people, and it’s his base,” the lawmaker added. “He doesn’t care about anyone else. And when he talks to them, I think a lot of the actions he’s taken is to try to undermine both the legislative branch and the judicial branch and strengthen his position of executive branch and the importance of him sticking around.”
Of course, there have been other examples of Trump throwing Republicans for a loop.
Last month, Republicans grappled with a $220 million provision in their reconciliation bill for security at the controversial East Wing ballroom. Some Republicans have tried to distance themselves from the East Wing demolition and Trump’s unauthorized construction project. But the administration sought to slip the money in both to fund the project and to have it serve as a de facto congressional authorization.
Eventually, the money became so controversial that Republicans had to drop it from the reconciliation bill.
Trump’s capricious endorsements have also presented problems and drawn a recent wedge.
The Paxton-over-Cornyn endorsement privately struck many Republicans as unnecessary, and it stung particularly because it came just days after Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., lost his reelection to another Trump-backed challenger.
The senior Senate GOP aide said the sequence of events made for a “tough” week.
“Coming off of Cassidy, the Paxton endorsement, the weaponization fund, and then the inability to move on reconciliation because of the weaponization fund — it was like a perfect storm,” this aide said.
Not all Republicans, however, are lamenting the lack of coordination. Cassidy said that while Trump’s announcements were “terrible timing” and “obviously complicates” legislating, he sees the glass half full.
“We should consider ourselves blessed that there was no coordination,” Cassidy told MS NOW. “It highlighted what a poor appointment that was and what a poor settlement that was.”
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.