Trump’s Debt Ceiling Demand is a Sign of Weakness

Today in the Washington Monthly, I wrote that attempts by Donald Trump’s allies to dishonestly interpret the Constitution to claim he can run for a third term are actually trying to prevent us from recognizing Trump’s innate lame duck status.

After all, lame ducks are lame. Since they can’t run again, congressional Republicans who will be on the ballot may eventually recognize their political objectives are no longer intertwined and find less obligation to do what the lame duck demands.

You may ask: Why would Trump worry about losing his influence with fellow Republicans? His supporters are so rabid, he can always threaten Republicans with primary challenges to keep them in line.

A seeming case in point: Yesterday he declared opposition to the spending bill necessary to keep the government, even though Speaker Mike Johnson negotiated it, and House Republicans pulled the plug on it. Clearly, Trump still has influence.

But Trump’s demand also shows he knows he’s on borrowed time.

I’ll explain, but first, here’s what’s leading the Washington Monthly website:

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Biden’s Cold-Blooded Victories: Editor in Chief Paul Glastris credits the outgoing president for gaining the upper hand in the proxy wars with Russia and Iran. Click here for the full story.

The Swedes Tried to Warn Us: John Austin, senior fellow at the Eisenhower Institute, explains the subtext delivered by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in their choice for the Nobel Prize in Economics. Click here for the full story.

Four Ways to Unbend the Media’s Knee: Contributing Editor Jonathan Alter lays out a strategy for news organizations to resist Trump’s threats. Click here for the full story.

Don’t Listen to Steve Bannon. Trump Will Be a Lame Duck, not a Third-Termer: My analysis of the motivation behind MAGA’s push for an unconstitutional presidential power grab. Click here for the full story.

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Trump’s social media statement announcing his opposition to the bill complained that it didn’t address the debt ceiling, which is expected to be reached next year: “Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?”

Maybe because Democrats cooperated with Trump three times on debt ceiling deals in his first presidency.

Sure Democrats negotiated and won concessions for their cooperation. But they’ve never employed the same taste for nihilistic brinksmanship as some in the Republican Party.

Even if Democrats couldn’t be trusted next year, Trump and the Republicans could still jack up the debt limit to a stratospheric amount on a party-line vote in the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process (which I unsuccessfully urged Democrats to do in 2021).

Which means, it’s not that Trump doesn’t trust Democrats. He doesn’t trust Republicans.

And he doesn’t trust himself. He doesn’t trust that he will continue to have absolute influence over congressional Republicans once he is sworn in and immediately becomes a lame duck.

Trump’s will be an inherently weak president. Both Republicans and Democrats should act accordingly.

Best,

Bill

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