Art of the solo deal

President Donald Trump’s early September debt-ceiling deal with Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer shocked Washington Republicans. How, they asked, could a Republican president deal with the Democratic minority on such an important issue without any notice, consultation, or agreement with the congressional leaders of his own party? That they ask this question shows how they still, two years after Donald Trump entered the ring, do not understand either the nature of the man or the nature of his political coalition.

Republican leaders are shocked because normal politicians, even presidents, consider themselves in some way accountable to the voters and factions of the party they lead. Normal politicians rise by accommodating party members’ opinions and demands. The implicit deal: We, the party members, will reward your ambition if you reward our desires.

Trump’s critics, though, note how often he has rejected the idea that he is accountable to anyone. They say he rebelled against his parents, who retaliated by sending him to military school, and rebelled against bourgeois norms by ostentatiously flaunting his wealth, courting glamorous models, and seeing his marriage vows as inconvenient truths.

They also point out that he declared bankruptcy multiple times and ran the Trump Organization as a privately held company with no shareholders to whom he was accountable. The idea that he would shuck a lifetime’s course of behavior once he became president was an illusion based on the hopes of men and women who could not understand how they had lost control of their party.

Many of Trump’s voters are amenable to cross-partisan deals, as indeed they ought to be: They are not Republicans. Trump won based on about 6 million people who had voted twice for Obama (and, if they are old enough, for virtually every other Democratic presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan) but supported him precisely because he wasn’t a typical Republican. Polls show these voters want a president who can bring both parties together and cut bipartisan deals.

Republican base voters don’t want that sort of leader, but they were not strong enough to stop Trump, much less dominate in a general election coalition. Losers don’t write the rules. Republican congressional leaders now know they cannot constrain Trump’s field of maneuver simply by invoking partisan loyalty. That means they will have to bid for his favor to get their way, just as every senior employee of the Trump Organization has had to bid for his favor for decades. That strengthens Trump’s hand across the board, so long as Democrats can persuade their base that dealing with what they consider the devil means they get fiddles of gold without selling their souls.

This should greatly concern evangelicals who have thought they had a deal with Trump. Now that he has shown he is willing to deal with the Democrats, might Democrats use their influence to affect who the next nominee to the Supreme Court might be? They might say: Give us a nominee who won’t overturn Roe or Obergefell, and we will give you [fill in what Trump wants most at that time].

Advisers to presidents often end up flattering those they hope to influence. Christians and others will be discussing how far they are willing to go.