These details, which confirm basically everything you suspected about the way Donald Trump conducts himself as president, would be humiliating no matter their source, but the fact that they appear to be coming straight from McConnell's inner circle is pretty remarkable. We're seven months into a unified Republican government, and we've already reached the point at which the senate majority leader is talking openly with aides about how his White House counterpart is a doddering, semi-coherent rube with a mean anarchist streak.

Trump's plan, as intimated to McConnell and shared privately with White House advisers, is to "distance himself" from Republicans in Congress should their high-profile failures continue. As Politico notes, there are reasons that this might look like an appealing course of action: Despite his abysmal approval rating, he still outpolls Congress, and he ran for office as an outsider who would upend Washington's complacent insider establishment. If McConnell and Ryan can't get anything of substance done in the next few months, it would be entirely consistent with Trump's brand—and with the way his supporters are inclined to apportion blame between the White House and Congress—to call out those failures, consequences be damned.

The problem with Trump's high-wire scapegoat act is that hanging fellow Republicans out to dry is a woefully shortsighted strategy in terms of both policy and also his presidency. It might allow the White House to temporarily avoid the public's wrath, but if Trump is too effective at publicly portraying GOP legislators as incompetent has-beens, he could put his House and Senate majorities real jeopardy come 2018, and a president already under a very active law enforcement investigation cannot afford to lose the fragile institutional protections that his congressional allies provide to him. Trump may not understand the stakes, but it's just as likely that even his famously powerful self-preservation instinct can't overcome his lifelong refusal to accept responsibility for his failures. For the GOP, it's an Alien vs. Predator situation: No matter which man wins the battle, the Republican Party loses the war.

Another adviser to McConnell said: “There may come a time that requires members to put a lot on the line to try and protect [Trump]. The stuff that he is doing currently will lead to a situation when he is all alone when it matters most.”

God willing.

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