Press: Blind loyalty to Trump

No doubt, those of us who live and work in Washington have a warped view of what people really care about. Which is why it’s so important to get out of the bubble once in a while — which I was lucky enough to do for the last two weekends — and talk to people who are not glued to cable TV 24/7.

So, no surprise, the biggest questions I got from Americans outside the Beltway are not the same ones that consume us inside the Beltway: Is Donald Trump mentally unbalanced? Will he fire Sean Spicer? What happened to Kellyanne Conway? And where’s Melania?

{mosads}In fact, I got very few questions about Trump himself. It appears that most Americans have accepted the fact that the Trump White House is a mad house, unlike any we’ve ever seen or will ever see again. The question I was most often asked is not: “What crazy thing has Donald Trump said now?” But: “Why do Republicans in Congress continue to support Donald Trump, no matter what outrageous things he says or does?”

Good question! The contrast between the way the vast majority of members of Congress approach their jobs and the way Donald Trump approaches his is stunning. They think, he doesn’t. They read, he doesn’t. They weigh decisions carefully, he shoots from the lip. They listen to experts, he listens to no one. They have a genuine regard for the truth, he has none.

The result is a president of the United States who governs in a style and manner which no member of Congress could get away with, or would even try. Consider just some of the ways Donald Trump has abused his position as president in the last four and a half months.

With zero evidence, he accused the former president of tapping his phones and claimed that three million people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton. He attacked the integrity of judges that did not rule in his favor and, in advance, blamed the judiciary for any future terrorist attacks. He refuses to release his tax returns or White House visitor logs. He compared leaders of our intelligence agencies to Nazis and called the media “the enemies of the American people.” He yuks it up with the Russian ambassador in the Oval Office, with no American reporters present, one day after firing the man leading the investigation into possible collusion between his team and Russian officials.

And this unhinged behavior comes on top of a campaign in which, among other offenses, he accused Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) father of conspiring to murder John F. Kennedy, vowed to throw Hillary Clinton in jail and bragged about committing serial sexual abuse and getting away with it.

No wonder so many Americans are asking: Why do Republicans in Congress, starting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), stick with him? Have they no self-respect? Sooner or later, they must realize that Donald Trump is not only dangerous for America, he’s a real threat to the Republican brand and their own political future. At which point, they will either break with Trump, or sink with him. 

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down.”

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