“What Congress has to do and the Senate majority leader has to do is say to the president of their own
party sometimes is, ‘We appreciate your interest, but we are not going to do that here today.’”
Indeed, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, warned the Trump administration soon after the election
that the best course of action was to accept a spending bill that would have gotten the government through the rest of the fiscal year without the bill’s being slowed or sidelined by tax and health care legislation.
“We believe that the Republican leaders should tell Donald Trump that we can do this at a later time.”
On Monday, as senators returned to Washington from a two-week recess to confirm Sonny Perdue for secretary of agriculture, Republican congressional leaders were negotiating with White House officials, who have been pressing for wall funding
and a mechanism to take some funding from the Affordable Care Act.
“That was a major asset for Trump as a candidate, but from a governing perspective
it can lead to competing priorities with the more conventional wing of the party.”
Mr. Spain added, “To the extent the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill can utilize
a hand-in-glove approach, the likelihood for success increases dramatically.”
While many presidents bring advisers from their home state during their first term,
they also tend to staff up with people wise to the ways of working with Congress.
“The general dynamic to get congressional leaders aligned with the White House is often a challenge,
but rarely impossible,” said Patrick Griffin, a former aide to Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and a legislative director during President Bill Clinton’s first term.