Neither the Senate nor the House has passed a budget. House action has been held up by a battle between moderates and conservatives over whether to pair spending cuts with the filibuster-proof tax measure. Senate action has been on hold while the House struggles. . . . . An impasse could doom the tax reform effort. . . . Politically, it would be another blow to Republicans, who stumbled on health care.

And if they get through the budget, remember the debt ceiling. Some hardcore Republicans irresponsibly refuse to raise the debt ceiling absent spending cuts that are unacceptable to other members. The administration wants a clean debt-ceiling bill, which would force the House speaker to go scrounge for votes from Democrats. The full faith and credit of the United States may ride on the House GOP leadership’s whip count. (Yes, go ahead and panic,)

It’s far from clear that Trump understands all this or is willing to compromise with Democrats (drop funding for the wall) to gain a shot at tax reform. As for the debt ceiling, in the campaign he dismissed the importance of avoiding default, a position that spooked even loyalists. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is presumably tasked with getting this done, but his negotiating skills with Congress are untested.

Given how erratic the president is and how tensions have risen between the Congress and White House, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly would be wise to wrangle Trump’s phone away from him and get him to focus on the budget and the importance of the debt ceiling. If Trump blows the basic tasks of keeping the government running and protecting the credit rating of the United States, his presidency likely won’t recover.