Back in the simpler days of 2016, shortly before Donald Trump won the G.O.P. presidential primary, his then-campaign manager Paul Manafort promised the shocked Republican establishment that it wouldn’t have a boorish, impulsive, xenophobic ignoramus as a candidate. That Trump, Manafort told the Republican National Committee during an April meeting, was just an act. “That’s what’s important for you to understand: That he gets it, and that the part he’s been playing is evolving,” he said, predicting that Trump’s “image is going to change” and promising that the establishment and his insurgency would be “united.” Unfortunately for the Republican Party, that pivot never occurred, and a year into his administration, President Trump is proving perhaps more deeply incompetent, more polarizing, and even more volatile than Candidate Trump ever was. Further, according to several reports, the recent downturn is likely to get worse.

This past week in particular saw Trump plummet to levels predicted by few, making a racially insensitive joke during an event celebrating Native Americans, and retweeting propaganda videos from a far-right British group and activist. Several reports indicate that Trump is falling back on conspiracy theories that he himself has disproven, such as the idea that the infamous Access Hollywood tape is fake (even after he personally admitted that he “said it” and “was wrong”). And on Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that, even in the wake of pushback, Trump feels emboldened, with sources adding that the president feels he can “largely operate with impunity.”

Officials told Axios that, far from being cowed, Trump seems “more self-assured, more prone to confidently indulging wild conspiracies and fantasies,” and more combative than he did at the beginning of his time in office. And rather than grapple with a boss who will simply steamroll them, Trump’s aides seem to have largely given up. On Wednesday, Politico reported that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who was brought in to streamline and restrict the information that reaches the president’s desk, has yet to figure out a way to prevent Trump from scrolling through his Twitter mentions, which is what led Trump to retweet two anti-Muslim videos from a far-right British nationalist group, one of which was first tweeted, along with Trump’s Twitter handle, by right-wing pundit Ann Coulter.

And the situation is not destined to improve once the G.O.P. pushes its tax bill through Congress. For one, scoring a legislative win would only embolden Trump. Perhaps more important, nobody in Congress or the White House seems to know what Trump wants to focus on next. Whereas past presidencies have laid out their agendas months, even years in advance, most in the Trump administration are unsure what topics they will broach, or revisit. “There is very little in the pipeline, and no obvious next item on the agenda after tax reform except maybe a return to health care,” Yuval Levin, the editor of the conservative policy journal National Affairs, told Politico. “Combine that with a president who doesn’t think in terms of policy, and you’ve got no clear next step.” Rather than take charge of policy direction, Trump seems content to limit his activities to Internet feuds.

In hindsight, the G.O.P. should not have trusted Manafort, who himself would eventually be indicted on counts including money laundering and conspiracy, imperiling the very presidency he sought to bolster. But party stalwarts, too, have failed to keep Trump in line, and can now do little but shrug off his various Constitution-bending outbursts. Despite the tumult of this week, Senate President pro tempore Orrin Hatch called Trump “one of the best presidents I’ve ever served under”. At this point, going along for the ride might be the best chance conservative politicians have to maintain their own sanity. “We’re seeing the message hijacked by the messenger,” Republican strategist John Brabender told the Post. “That’s been problematic for a long time and it’s still problematic . . . Sometimes we all just scratch our heads.”