Brian Klaas

Opinion contributor

Last week in Trumpland was a crazy disaster. The president thanked children in the Boy Scouts for votes they didn’t cast and told them about a hot cocktail party. President Trump publicly attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions for refusing to obstruct justice. He also publicly confirmed the existence of a covert CIA program on Twitter before tweeting out a new military policy without telling the Pentagon.

With all those earnest policy-driven lobbying efforts, it’s a complete shocker his health care bill somehow didn’t pass.

This should be of concern to both Republicans and Democrats. A President Rubio or Romney would be taking full advantage of a Republican House and Senate to make sweeping change. Trump is failing as president not because he’s a Republican but because of who he is — the walking embodiment of his Seven Deadly Sins that he cannot control.

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Vainglory/Pride

Trump’s ego drives him. He has been consistently inconsistent when it comes to policy ideas, but his commitment to Donald Trump is absolute.

Vainglory derailed his agenda with distractions and defeats. He made the Boy Scouts speech about himself rather than about serving others. He couldn’t handle the slight from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s vote against the GOP health bill, so he threatened all of Alaska — thereby cementing her fateful opposition. And he held a rally in Ohio not to build support for a vote he already had or to make the case for a policy agenda — but because he can recharge only with the adoration of a cheering crowd. Then, he left the chanting multitudes and tweeted about crowd size — the 252nd time he has done so. (For comparison, he has tweeted only 36 times about Afghanistan.) Governing is about others, but Trump hasn’t been able to bury his pride.

Wrath

When Trump’s temper flares, he is his own worst enemy. Yet his staff cannot seem to rein in his most wrathful impulses.

Last week, Trump lashed out at allies he perceives as enemies who have crossed him. He relentlessly and repeatedly attacked Sessions, alienating his base in the process. He attacked the acting FBI director, an unwise move for someone being actively investigated. Trump sanctioned a public attack by his communications director on his chief of staff. And his early insult against Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for being captured in Vietnam, came back to haunt him as the Republican health care bill failed by one unexpected vote — McCain's.

Sloth

A President Rubio or Romney probably could have gotten a health care bill passed. Trump didn’t do the necessary work. Despite claiming that he has very little time to watch TV, aides say he is constantly fixated on cable news programs (and he often tweets responses to Fox & Friends in real time). He told lawmakers they shouldn’t leave Washington until they passed a health care bill, then promptly left himself for a weekend of golf. After slamming President Obama dozens of times about golf habits, Trump has spent 22% of his days as president at his golf properties. If you’re angry about Trump’s slow pace of legislative change, that might be a good place to start.

Gluttony or the Lack of Self Control

It’s no secret that Trump loves KFC, well-done steak with ketchup and “beautiful" chocolate cake for those occasions when he’s bombing Syria. But Trump’s main sin in this realm is his inability to control his impulses. He won’t listen to lawyers. He won’t listen to his wife’s cyberbullying initiative. The more he lets his impulses rule, the less he governs effectively.

Lust

From his Playboy past to Howard Stern interviews boasting that he would date his daughter if she weren’t a relative, Trump sells an image laced with lust. It has gotten him in trouble, with the Access Hollywood tape the most damaging blow. Those lustful failings and his casual misogyny have made him historically unpopular with women, thereby kneecapping his presidency. Just over two in 10 American women approve of Trump. Given how crucial women are to victory in swing elections, this is undercutting his ability to pressure wavering members of Congress on hard votes.

Envy

Trump’s Twitter tantrums expose a jealousy for his rivals and a constant attempt to measure up to them. He is obsessed with the fact that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. In response, he launched a bogus voter fraud commission that is backfiring. He falsely claims that millions voted illegally. And Trump boasts about his election victory in grossly improper ways, including to the Boy Scouts last week. When polls show him in a negative light, he calls them fake. And his impulse to compare himself to Obama or Clinton repeatedly prompts him to go off message, ranting rather than talking about “Infrastructure Week” or “Energy Week.”

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Greed

“I don't do it for the money,” Trump claims in the opening to The Art of the Deal. “I do it to do it.” Every piece of available evidence contradicts that claim. Trump cares about money. A lot. His greed is damaging his presidency as lawsuits and ethics violations rack up. Trump faces an emoluments lawsuit. The head of the independent federal Office of Government Ethics resigned after clashes with Trump over his failure to divest from his businesses. And his past business dealings could come back to haunt him as special counsel Bob Mueller probes for financial crimes.

American presidents all have failings. We are all human. But Trump departs from all presidents since Richard Nixon in that he is unable to control his impulses and manage his sins. For the past six months, they have undermined the Republican agenda. Last week — which ended, post-health care, with a major staff shake-up and Trump encouraging cops to rough up suspects — was no exception. It's hard to imagine anything changing, because Trump has shown no signs of changing.

Brian Klaas, a fellow in comparative politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is author of The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy. Follow him on Twitter @brianklaas.

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