William Antholis

Opinion contributor

As a candidate, Donald Trump famously promised a series of legislative victories. “We're going to win so much, you're going to get tired of winning,” he said in February 2016. “You’re going to say: ‘Please, Mr. President, I have a headache. Please, don't win so much. This is getting terrible.’ ”

After two-thirds of a year in office, Trump is claiming success. “Virtually no President has accomplished what we have accomplished in the first 9 months — and economy roaring,” he tweeted Wednesday.

Yet Trump is still in search of a major legislative win. His victory tweet came the day after Congress again failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The prospects for other priorities remain unclear. Will he pass a “Dreamer Act” on immigration with Democrats? Will he pass tax cuts, build a border wall, launch a major infrastructure initiative?

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If one of these accomplishments doesn’t happen this year, it is getting harder to see what will count as a major win. And that could have dramatic consequences on the next three years of Trump’s presidency.

There are many obstacles, some created by Trump and some beyond his control. The combined cost of recovery from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria could top $200 billion, requiring congressional action. The president’s regular feuding with members of both parties will not help.

On top of that, time is running out. Conventional wisdom holds that a president has one year to achieve major legislative victories. With congressional primaries in spring 2018 and midterm elections next November, the rest of 2017 is critical.

Still, legislative wins are not the only kind of wins. Trump has, for instance, confirmed his cabinet and Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. And there was his surprise deal to lift the debt ceiling, collaborating with congressional Democrats over Republican leaders’ objections.

Another strategy for winning comes from using executive authority. Indeed, Trump has reversed Obama policies on issues ranging from environmental protection, financial regulation and health care to immigration, infrastructure, law enforcement and trade policy.

The president is also winning by deconstructing the government, or what critics call destroying it. Deconstruction is the goal framed famously by his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. In this approach, winning is defined by upending the federal bureaucracy. Defunding agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, refusing to prop up federal health insurance markets — the idea is to starve an insatiable nanny state. If members of Congress want to fix those items, the president says repeatedly, they can do it themselves.

Is there a political payoff? Deconstruction pleases the president’s anti-establishment base and some Freedom Caucus conservatives (most of whom remain committed to blocking any legislation). In primaries, that will certainly help pro-Trump Republicans. The harder challenge will be in the general election, where pro-Trump turnout from this base will go toe-to-toe with mobilized Democrats and independents.

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Trump’s clearest, biggest win is on raw viewership. He dominates news coverage, allowing him to set daily debates on his own terms — shifting attention away from investigations and a stalled legislative agenda. With viewership as the goal, the former Apprentice star has picked fights early and often. His latest taunt-feuds have been with Kim Jung Un, Stephen Curry and the NFL. He has also provoked his own Republican allies — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain. Each tweetstorm and intemperate remark dominates the airwaves.

But headlines and Twitter followers are less important than Trump’s low job approval. That is the more significant measure, particularly in the 2018 elections. If the GOP were to lose control of the House, the president would face even more debilitating investigations. As for Trump’s reelection in 2020, job approval below 40% is a troubling starting point.

Lyndon Johnson once famously said about the president and Congress, “You’ve got to give it all you can in that first year. Doesn’t matter what kind of majority you come in with ... you’ve got just one year when they treat you right and before they start worrying about themselves.”

As Trump taunts both allies and opponents, and as his first year approaches its fourth quarter, he will soon need to decide which — if any — legislative win in the fall of 2017 can translate to wins for his party in November 2018.

William Antholis is director and CEO of the University of Virginia’s non-partisan Miller Center, which has worked with administrations of both parties for more than 40 years, and recently has been studying presidential first years.