It's obvious that the Beltway establishment desperately needs Donald Trump to NOT be a Republican. As I predicted last August, Trump's politics isn't some magical independent "Trumpism" -- Trump is the Republican Party and vice-versa:

Donald Trump lies about a lot of things, but he is not lying when he says he received more Republican Primary votes than any other candidate in US history. That statistic is skewed by how many Republicans voted "Not Trump," but the fact that the race boiled down to Trump versus not-Trump is not helpful to the "Trumpism" argument. Republican voters selected Trump as their candidate, in state after state after state. The beltway news media is terrified that the Republican Party will be forever tarnished by this Trump candidacy. Why? Because Trump-as-Republican busts open their "both sides" myth, that "both sides" of the political spectrum are equally bad, equally wrong and right, equally to be blamed for the "mess" in Washington. Both-siderism protects the Beltway's need for an election horserace, as well as a "view from nowhere" in which the media is outside the race altogether and just an "observer" of "the process." But both-siderism picks a side: the side that is willing to lie repeatedly to win elections and policy points.

And who is the biggest liar in the history of American politics? Republican Donald Trump. Don't forget that none other than Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that Republicans need not worry that Democrats have taken over policy with the "Chuck and Nancy show," because the "head of the Republican Party" Donald Trump is at the table with them, yay!

Seth Meyers:

So Trump got one deal with Democrats to keep the government open for a few months, and then had a few of them over for dinner, and now all of a sudden talking heads are engaging in yet another round of absurd punditry over whether Trump is a Republican or whether he's the "independent-minded deal-making president" he billed himself as during the campaign...

Meyers then shows a mash-up of TV pundits claiming Trump is an independent! Because of course they are.

Can we all please let go of this idea the Trump is some kind of maverick independent who's above his party alliance? Being an independent isn't the same thing as being a rudderless narcissist, and in every political sense that matters, he's a Republican. Just take his renewed attempt to once again revived the GOP failed plan to repeal Obamacare. (CLIP) Yesterday a small group of Republican senators unveiled yet another bill that would repeal Obamacare and drastically overall Medicare. (END CLIP) Oh my God! Again, Republicans? This isn't something you hear very often but "Play something from the new album!!!"

As if Republicans have a new album. That's adorable, Seth Meyers.