Trump sees dangerous cracks in Hill GOP support

A series of recent events is alienating congressional allies Trump would need in an impeachment fight.

By Eliana Johnson & Burgess Everett @ Politico.com, Updated 12/21/2018 10:50 PM EST

[....] cracks are showing between Trump’s base and GOP officials, who are rattled by his Syria exit and the ensuing resignation of his Defense secretary, Jim Mattis.

“Going to the base of the base means that Republican senators are going to start disagreeing with you, because that’s not their party," said Matthew Continetti, editor-in-chief of the conservative Washington Free Beacon.

One Republican senator said his colleagues feel like they’ve been increasingly hijacked by Trump. The senator described the president as increasingly intent on pleasing the hard-line House Freedom Caucus and media allies like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. Some Republicans find the juxtaposition between what they consider a reckless foreign policy and a reckless border wall fight to be infuriating.

“Syria is crumbling. And we’re talking about a fucking wall,” this senator said.

Also aggravating Republicans is Trump’s sheer unpredictability, which was evident from his unclear and shifting positions on the budget talks. Earlier this week Trump seemed prepared to accept a short-term spending bill from Congress that did not include billions for a border wall, allowing for holiday vacations to begin as planned. By Thursday, he had abruptly shifted back to a hard-line position, saying he would rather see the government shut down than surrender on the border wall.

“Usually out of the president it’s better to have a steady course. You want to be able to draw a bead on where your leader is going to be in a week or two or three. This has not been a steady course. We need a steady course,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

Trump is still a long way from seeing the Senate GOP turn on him in numbers that could lead to his impeachment and expulsion from office. Republicans will have a 53-47 Senate majority in 2019, and it requires 67 Senate votes to convict a president who has been impeached in the House. That means roughly 20 senators — many of them representing states in which Trump is highly popular — would need to turn on him.

But some Republicans say they’ve seen a subtle shift in tone of late. Early signs of trouble appeared this past fall [....]

Dangerous attack on The Fed next? !!!

No longer just scuttlebutt, as Bloomberg published on it a half hour ago, that's a shot that is going to go round the world, has to be addressed by grownups now

Trump Discusses Firing Fed's Powell After Latest Rate Hike, Sources Say

By Jennifer Jacobs, Saleha Mohsin & Margaret Talev​, December 21, 2018, 11:42 PM EST

• Advisers warn ousting Fed chairman would lead to market rout
• President’s legal authority to remove Powell is unclear

Here is Jennifer Jacobs twitter thread on same.

In addition: a reminder that

Senator Grassley yesterday publicly and formally expressed strong unhappiness with the trade situation

American Enterprise Institute (remember them? used ta be a big playa in the GOP)

Sen. Corker replying to Trump: