A few things stand out about a CNN article headlined “Trump privately tries to mend fences with Senate Republicans.” First, its very existence. Sure, every president is going to have a rocky moment or two with his party’s senators, but how often do we see the sheer number and variety of beefs as Trump has accumulated? He’s repeatedly attacked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, his nastiness toward John McCain is legendary, he feuded with Bob Corker after Corker was critical of his embrace of white supremacists after Charlottesville … the list goes on. The man has a lot of fences to mend, for some strange reason.
But the next thing that jumps out is that Trump himself isn’t the primary fence-mender. That duty is falling to his No. 2 guy, Mike Pence. Of the senators named in the article as having been attacked by Trump prior to fence-mending, Trump has invited Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski to lunch and spoken with Corker and McConnell. But Pence “has been in regular communication with” McConnell and talked to Corker long before Trump did. He’s also in touch with McCain and with McCain’s Arizona colleague Jeff Flake, who Trump has apparently not reached out to—and really how awkward would that conversation be, considering that Trump has talked up a primary challenge to Flake?
And you can’t help but think that Pence could have ulterior motives in keeping such great relationships with the very people who might, depending on the results of the special counsel’s investigation, end up voting on whether to remove Trump from office.
Finally, Senate Republicans really do see Trump as an unpredictable, tantrum-prone child:
"I think it's like a thunderstorm," Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said of his conference's relationship with Trump. "After a while it clears up, the sun comes out and everything is OK." [...]
Asked if he finds that kind of relationship acceptable, Cornyn said bluntly: "What choice do I have?"
Funny you should ask, John! You and other Republicans could always put real distance between yourselves and Trump the next time he, for instance, sides with white supremacists. Or threatens nuclear war. He might be less friendly toward your priorities, like your specific favorite tax cuts for the very wealthy, but that’s a choice you’re making. You’re supporting and empowering him because you choose to put whatever you can get out of him above common decency and the best interests of the nation. It’s that simple.