Faced with escalating investigations—and mounting calls for impeachment—President Donald Trump has settled on a simple message: Democrats have chosen politically motivated investigations over their legislative duty. “Zero is getting done with the Democrats in charge of the House,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday, then resumed his complaints on Thursday:*

The Democrats have become known as THE DO NOTHING PARTY! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2019

When the Democrats in Congress refinish, for the 5th time, their Fake work on their very disappointing Mueller Report finding, they will have the time to get the REAL work of the people done. Move quickly! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2019

Trump was performatively upset with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had said earlier in the day that the president was “engaged in a cover-up” by blocking congressional investigations into a host of issues. Trump walked out on Pelosi (and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer) after only three minutes. The fit of pique was staged, however—he had always planned to leave, as demonstrated by the fully prepped Rose Garden press conference the president “crashed” immediately after. The message on the sharpie-scrawled note card Trump clutched firmly in one hand: The Democrats were choosing investigation over legislation.

The irony, of course, is that if there’s anyone in Washington who has struggled to walk and chew gum at the same time, it’s been Donald Trump. Obsessed with cable news and social media, he has spent most of his time and his political capital ranting about his enemies. Much of what’s gotten done in Washington has been in the shadows. The Senate, under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has turned into a factory for lifetime judicial appointments—and little else. At federal agencies, gutting regulations has become Job One. But, aside from a corporate tax cut aimed at pleasing conservative donors, Trump has done little of substance in the White House. And that would still be the case even if Democrats weren’t on the verge of impeaching him.

There’s no better case-in-point than the end of the latest iteration of “infrastructure week.” The very concept, as The New York Times reported on Wednesday, has turned into perhaps the longest-running joke of the Trump era. Since the first infrastructure week—way back in June of 2017—the administration has promised progress on a large, bipartisan infrastructure package that would rebuild crumbling roads, bridges, and railways across the country. Infrastructure has been widely seen as the best, and perhaps only, place for compromise between Trump and Democrats.



There was also a hope, in some quarters, that Trump’s interest in construction—and his vanity, given that one could assume he would self-brand much of the work—would allow him to maintain focus, something he has notably struggled with in most other areas. (The president is someone, after all, who spent a meeting about tax reform workshopping nicknames for Steve Bannon.) But it never made much of a difference. There have been dozens of infrastructure weeks, and they have all ended in empty chaos.

