Why Trump is the Democratic Party’s best friend right now

With the GOP healthcare overhaul in tatters and not a single big win in the books for Republicans six months after they took full control of Washington, Democrats can acknowledge a surprising truth about Donald Trump: He’s good for their agenda.

To the exasperation of Republicans of all stripes, President Trump and his erratic behavior, distracting scandals, and unhelpful nocturnal tweets have slowed, sidelined, or outright scuttled key pieces of the Republican platform. Let’s go down the list.

Healthcare

The only route left for Republicans is to vote for a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act with a promise that they’ll do something later about the unmitigated mess that it will create.

{mosads}But that’s an even more unpopular proposition than the last three iterations of their healthcare plan and even more unlikely to pass, leaving ObamaCare fully intact, despite many, many campaign promises. The fact that Trump was all over the place with his message about the repeal effort and that the Russia scandal dominated news was far from helpful.

Spending

There’s been lots of talk about cuts to the federal budget from both Trump and Congress. But when it came time for real adjustments to spending, Congress passed a budget this spring that looked more like it was written by Democrats than Republicans. Nondefense domestic spending increased. Planned Parenthood funding stayed in place. And the budget even explicitly limited funding for a border wall. After this, Trump and his brash, unpredictable negotiating style was blamed by many for the result.

Taxes

The GOP and Trump talk a big game about cutting taxes, but they have not made any progress so far. The failed healthcare overhaul was their first attempt at a massive tax break by eliminating the surcharges on the wealthiest Americans that pay for the current program.

Trump also does not seem to care at all about increasing the deficit, while Congressional Republicans do — and that could lead to a fight over taxes soon. Other issues, like corporate tax rates, the border adjustment tax, and the size of the cuts could also pit the president against his party in an unproductive way for both.

And let’s not forget that Trump’s sloppy approach to the travel ban has sidelined more moderate restrictions on immigration prized by many Republicans. Also, buried in the news about the health bill collapse was another loss for many on the right: Trump renewed the controversial deal with Iran.

Throughout all of this, Trump has openly fought with members of his own party instead of banding with them. He’s constantly criticized GOP Congressional leadership and taken pot-shots at individual members. Yesterday, after the demise of the “repeal and replace” effort, he blamed Republicans as well as Democrats.

In fact, he may even help bounce some Republicans out of office. It was reported recently that he is mounting an effort to oust Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake — an ardently conservative Republican — by running a primary competitor against him next year. He has threatened other GOP members of Congress as well.

In short, Trump as de facto head of the GOP has been an absolute disaster for the party. And, because of Trump, not only do the Republicans not have a leader — they don’t have an enemy.

According to a new Bloomberg poll, Hillary Clinton has a worse approval rating than Trump. It’s impossible to know how popular she would be if she were president, but one thing is for sure: With her in the White House, the Republicans would have had something to rally against. Imagine if she were the face of the opposition to the healthcare overhaul. How many Republican senators would have been able to get away with siding with her?

Instead, the Democrats have their perfect villain. Trump is a one-man fundraising, organizing, catalyzing movement for progressives and liberals. All of this should be enough for the Republican leadership to seriously question their support of Trump.

Of course, Trump’s bumbling attempts at leadership provide little solace to Dems. And we can’t assume he will blow up everything for the Republicans. Despite his struggles, Trump continues to have a terrifying amount of power — especially over foreign affairs. To Democrats, he is also overseeing a damaging era of unapologetic immorality.

And the Republicans are not to be underestimated. They have some notable victories since Trump took office. The president withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, put Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, and is on an unprecedented mission to shrink the government by directing federal agencies to limit regulations and oversight. This means Democrats must keep fighting Trump and the GOP agenda as intensely as they have to hold the line.

The GOP also responded immediately to the healthcare failure yesterday with an announcement that they would be moving a budget resolution in the House of Representatives to slash more than $200 billion from the federal government in order to set up the crown jewel of their agenda: a massive tax cut.

Maybe Trump will mess that up too. But we can’t count on that. Following the healthcare debacle and six months of losing, Republicans would be smart to move forward apart from the White House and its meddlesome tenant. After all, so far Trump is their worst enemy.

Evan Thies is a Democratic political consultant and co-founder of Pythia Public Affairs.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.