Trump Policy Gyrations Threaten Fragile Republican Coalition
By Jonathan Martin, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Alexander Burns at the NYTimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/us/politics/republicans-trump-shutdown.html
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“I don’t think we’ve fixed the problems that caused the midterm losses yet, and I don’t know if we’re on a trajectory to do so,” said Representative Kevin Yoder, a Kansas Republican who lost his re-election bid because of the suburban backlash.
Choosing to shut down the government after conservative media personalities belittled him for caving on his demand for border funding, the president proved that he remains more fixated on pleasing his base than winning back moderate voters he has alienated.
Yet inside the Senate, Republicans were on edge because the president’s approach to national security was both rash and anathema to long-held G.O.P. views on America’s global leadership. After musing during his campaign about pursuing noninterventionist policies, Mr. Trump has now decided to embrace his “America First” approach — to the alarm of some traditionalists in his party.
“People are becoming significantly concerned,” said Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who heads the Foreign Relations Committee. “It’s one thing to have issues on the domestic side. When you start willy-nilly foreign policy moves that are against U.S. interests, that is a wake-up call for people in the Senate.”
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