Donald Trump has yet to arrive in Washington, but he is already confronting the limitations of his electoral mandate.
Trump’s eleventh-hour attempt to blow up a carefully negotiated bill to keep the government funded into March did not achieve the outcome he had sought: clearing a debt ceiling battle looming early in his next presidency.
It did, however, expose a lingering rift among House Republicans that had been hiding behind the GOP’s post-election euphoria and made clear Trump’s sway over his own party remains far from absolute. In a stunning turn, 38 Republicans defied the president-elect on Thursday. By early Saturday morning — 48 hours after Trump threatened primary challenges for anyone who supported funding the government without eliminating the debt limit — 170 House Republicans and dozens of GOP senators voted for just that.
The chaotic episode one month before Trump returns to the White House served as a reminder that governing has foiled plenty of successful politicians, and it foreshadowed the challenges ahead for Trump as he navigates a narrow House majority and a Senate full of people who expect to outlast the president-elect’s four years in Washington.
