GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump returns to the White House Sunday [8-20-17] after a working vacation at his New Jersey golf club, amid signs he has alienated some congressional Republicans by saying both white-nationalist demonstrators and counterprotesters deserved blame for the recent violent clash in Virginia.
Mr. Trump has a long to-do list: He is expected to lay out a much-anticipated plan Monday night for a new strategy in the long-running conflict in Afghanistan. He must help forge a consensus in Congress on a spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown. He also will try to wrest funding for his proposed border wall and jump-start negotiations over a tax-code overhaul.
White House aides believe that if the legislative push bogs down this fall, it is possible nothing substantial happens before the midterm elections in November 2018.
The president will have barely settled into a newly renovated West Wing before he leaves again, heading to a rally Tuesday in Phoenix. Protests are expected coming off the president’s remarks on the deadly demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va. The Phoenix mayor, Democrat Greg Stanton, has urged Mr. Trump to postpone the rally—and was consulting with local police about how ‘to keep everyone safe,’ a spokesman said.
Most elected Republican officials have offered narrow if any public support for Mr. Trump in recent days, and a few GOP lawmakers have openly criticized the president. Many other Republicans have condemned racism and bigotry without mentioning Mr. Trump by name.”
-Peter Nicholas, Joshua Jamerson, and Natalie Andrews, “Trump Gets Little Air Cover From Fellow Republicans,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 20, 2017 04:54pm