House Speaks Paul Ryan greets US President Donald Trump as he arrives on stage to speak at the National Republican Congressional Committee March Dinner at the National Building Museum on March 20, 2018 in Washington, DC.

That conclusion managed to be extraordinary and unsurprising at the same time. Trump is just 16 months into his term, with fellow Republicans controlling both houses of Congress after an eight-year Democratic presidency. Yet the GOP's deep-seated anti-government stance leaves the modern party with fundamental reflexes of negation.

The news came without fanfare at the press secretary's daily briefing Wednesday. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that all of President Donald Trump 's talk of a massive, trillion-dollar upgrade to America's infrastructure, from "Infrastructure Week" declarations to a 53-page plan unveiled three months ago, won't produce "a specific piece of legislation" in 2018.

The White House has made it official: the all-Republican government in Washington has no major legislative agenda this year.

Those reflexes block action on the bold promises that once positioned candidate Trump to deliver infrastructure investments pleasing business and working-class supporters alike. Investments cost money. And after the $1.5 trillion tax cut that represents their only major Trump-era achievement so far, Republicans don't think they have any.

The return of trillion-dollar deficits led House Speaker Paul Ryan to suggest a different 2018 agenda altogether. He favors "entitlement reform" curbing the huge costs of Social Security and Medicare, the twin landmarks for retirees that Democratic governments created over fierce conservative opposition.

But both programs enjoy overwhelming popularity. That's why candidate Trump promised not to touch them. So even as the surge of baby boomer retirements strains their solvency, Republicans have also set entitlement reform aside.

That doesn't mean Congress won't do anything at all. With support from some Democrats, Republican leaders aim to roll back regulations on small and medium-sized banks under the Dodd-Frank law that President Barack Obama pushed through after the 2008 financial crisis.

Republicans also hope to pass a new farm bill, although it's unclear whether they can muster the votes for Trump's "welfare reform" push to impose new work requirements on Americans who receive food stamps. They'll consider an administration request to roll back some previously approved spending.

Yet that package of "recissions" – 1/100th the size of the tax cut – wouldn't produce big savings anyway, since much of the money is sitting in dormant government accounts.

The White House has turned to foreign policy. This week, Trump defied U.S. allies to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal even as he pursues a new deal with North Korea. He has not resolved his threats to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and to impose import tariffs on both China and friendlier partners including the European Union.