Axios: Trump, alone

Posted on September 9, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
Trump, alone
 
President Trump meets with U.S. travel executives in the Oval Office last week. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Top White House officials and elected Republicans tell us the same thing in private: They no longer even try to persuade President Trump to do or not do something, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a “Behind the Curtain” column.

“Why bother?” a longtime adviser and admirer told us. “He’s the boss.”

Why it matters: For nearly a decade, Republicans acquiesced to nearly every Trump demand and idea — and rationalized it by saying his instincts proved smarter than theirs. Now, many no longer trust those instincts. But they find it just as futile to push back against virtually anything he wants.

Start a war without an endgame? OK.

Post a cartoon of you — wielding a hockey stick and sporting a Trump-branded USA jersey — towering over Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, sprawled on the ice, and telling him to “GET UP”? On it.

Toss together an egocentric, first-ever Republican midterm convention that many endangered candidates don’t want? Sounds like a good plan, boss! (Gavels in today in Dallas at 4 p.m. ET, in fact.)

Oh, you want to speak both nights? Done!

Make ads featuring you when your popularity is near its all-time low? You came to the right place, sir.

Make the midterms a referendum on you? Check.

Spend precious time obsessing about ballroom construction, and gilding and marbleizing the White House?

You are the new Caesar Augustus.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rehearses yesterday at the podium of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP

👂 What we’re hearing: Many aides and confidants have been worn down by Trump. They know they can’t stop him, and they don’t even try.More and more, they humor his whims.

“He’s an 80-year-old man who did it his way,” said a donor who recently met with the president. “What he wants, he gets.”

White House insiders insist there’s a semblance of structure and reason, and that the president doesn’t act on every impulse. They declined to provide examples of times he resisted.

🔎 Between the lines: Republicans are pessimistic about keeping their House majority in the midterms, and worried about the Senate. Regardless of the outcome, Trump will officially be a lame duck 56 days from now.

On Nov. 4, the day after Election Day, attention will start turning to the 2028 race — and to the Democratic leaders who are likely to have new juice on Capitol Hill.

Trump, a top adviser emphasized, is no lame duck: “Discount Trump at your peril.”

“He wields enormous power in the party, in politics and culturally,” the adviser said. “Anyone who thinks he’s going to retreat into the shadows is either stupid or has bad political instincts.

“The bottom line: Trump insiders calculate they lived by Trump and so will die by Trump, rather than break with Trump.

“He’s going to remain the dominant political figure even after his term ends,” the adviser said. “And everybody knows it.”

Share this story … Marc Caputo contributed reporting from Dallas.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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