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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. President Trumps increasing alienation from fellow Republicans and the business community is further imperiling the partys top priority for the remainder of the year: cutting taxes and simplifying the byzantine tax code.

Congressional GOP leaders are hoping to recover from their failed effort to replace the Affordable Care Act and salvage their legislative agenda by unifying the party around tax reform, but Trump has spent recent weeks publicly antagonizing key lawmakers and fanning controversy with his response to last weekends racist violence in Charlottesville.

Several key lawmakers said Trump will need to focus on selling the GOPs tax plan when Congress returns in September, and they worried that the difficult job of passing a massive tax package will be nearly impossible without the president playing a key role.

At the end of the day, President Trump will be incredibly crucial to the success of this, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) told reporters here Wednesday. Tax reform is the signature issue of this presidency.

Brady traveled to the Santa Ynez Mountains near Santa Barbara this week to borrow some inspiration from the last president to rewrite the nations tax laws, Ronald Reagan. He and other Republican Congress members stood in front of Reagans Rancho del Cielo property and promised to finish their own legislation by years end a pledge Brady said can succeed only if Trump gets on board and stays on board.

President Trump unveiled his tax plan on April 26, after months of pledging to make drastic changes to the tax code. The Post's Damian Paletta explains why tax reform is so complicated. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

But the call for presidential support comes at a nadir of trust and cooperation between Trump and GOP members in Congress. In the hours leading up to Wednesdays event, corporate executives and Republican lawmakers were publicly distancing themselves from the president because of his controversial statements assigning blame for violent clashes at a rally in Charlottesville to both the white supremacists who organized the event and those who showed up to protest their presence.

The rush of criticism was the latest in a series of increasingly tense standoffs between Trump and his GOP colleagues. One week earlier, the president launched a multiday assault on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for failing to pass legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

In recent weeks, Republican members have been forced to decide whether they can separate the parts of Trumps presidency that offend them and their constituents from the reality that his support is likely to be key to achieving their long-sought legislative goals.

While some Republicans say they have grown accustomed to Trumps often erratic approach to politics, many others are frustrated.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who along with Reps. Peter J. Roskam (R-Ill.) and David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) accompanied Brady on the trip, said that while lawmakers were used to working in a very distracting environment, the push for tax reform would require Trump to help refocus attention away from day-to-day scandal and back to policy details in a way he never did during the health-care debate.

This is on a whole different scale, Curbelo said. The committees are still going to do their work, and its not like were just going to sit around and talk about issues like this all of the time, but it certainly makes it harder to make a strong case for tax reform to the public because nobody is talking about it.

Some outside groups have attempted to step into the void left by Trump on tax reform. A number of conservative organizations, including the American Action Network, have launched public relations campaigns touting the benefits of tax reform to voters. The groups are spending millions on advertising, public polling and lobbying to help create momentum for a tax package.

On Thursday, AAN released focus-group data that it said showed GOP and independent- leaning voters in Nebraska and California want to see Republicans talk about tax reform. Those surveyed were happy with messages about simplifying the tax code and wanted lawmakers to specifically illustrate how reform would grow the economy and empower job creation, AAN said.

But lawmakers have struggled to identify concrete examples of policies that would achieve those goals, including during the event on Wednesday. From the mortgage interest deduction to charitable giving to business expense write-offs, Brady said the plan was still in development and depended on cooperation with Trump.

We continue to work with the White House, including the president, and the Senate on the details and design of this tax reform, Brady said when pressed on a plan for taxing international corporations. Well continue to do that through August and after we return as well.

But congressional Republicans and the White House have yet to agree on much other than the broad strokes of a tax plan.

Instead, Republicans spent a majority of the year locked in a battle over the few specific policies identified in a House tax reform blueprint that was released last year. White House officials and Senate leaders were deeply skeptical of a plan from House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) that would have cut taxes on exports in an effort to boost U.S. manufacturers.

Ryan and his allies said their proposal would have created more than a $1trillion in new revenue over 10 years that could be used to offset the cost of lowering tax rates for businesses and individuals. But the plan was met with fierce resistance from key stakeholders, such as retailers, who rely on imports for their business, forcing Ryan to abandon the plan late last month when he joined with Brady, McConnell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) to release a joint statement of unity on taxes.

Trump has failed to build on this show of unity and has instead picked fights with McConnell and other Senate Republicans while stoking public controversies over race.

Brady said Wednesday that he personally could separate Trumps controversies from the GOP-wide goal of passing a tax bill. I still think the president has the ability to refocus on tax reform, he said. I look to see him pivot to tax reform and jobs and make this case nationwide.

That pivot was further complicated when Trump was forced to dissolve a pair of corporate advisory groups after a number of CEO members resigned over the presidents comments about the Charlottesville protests.

Business leaders are distancing themselves from Trump, making their role in advancing his agenda awkward at best. They are now likely to focus even more of their efforts on working with Congress in hopes they can enact tax cuts a desire lawmakers said could help the debate transcend the hard feelings between CEOs and the White House.

Congressional leaders also are holding out hope that the outside pressure will help keep rank-and-file Republicans focused on taxes and eager to avoid mistakes that led to the dramatic failure of their promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Im of the mind of the stumbles on health care put a lot of pressure on members to get to yes, Roskam said, arguing Republican lawmakers see the necessity of nailing down a victory.

I think most members of Congress are going to say to themselves, I need to go back to a constituency and Ive got to deliver on health care or taxes, Roskam said. The notion of not getting either one of those things done is not a pleasant prospect.

Brady and his colleagues who assembled in the California mountains this week said they believed the party would unite on taxes in the coming months.

Weve got a responsibility as leaders to say, Okay, lets rub some dirt on our problems and move forward and figure this out, Roskam said. Its bigger than any president.

Read more at PowerPost

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Republicans worry tax reform could be victim of their worsening relationship with Trump - Washington Post

(Bridgewater, N.J./WASHINGTON) President Donald Trump decried on Thursday the removal of monuments to the pro-slavery Civil War Confederacy, echoing white nationalists and drawing stinging rebukes from fellow Republicans in a controversy that has inflamed racial tensions.

Trump has alienated Republicans, corporate leaders and U.S. allies, rattled markets and prompted speculation about possible White House resignations with his comments since Saturday's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, which came in the aftermath of a white nationalist protest against the removal of a Confederate statue.

Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned Trump's capacity to govern.

"The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the ability or the competence that he needs to be successful," said Corker, who Trump had considered for the job of secretary of state. Corker said Trump needed to make "radical changes."

Trump unleashed attacks on two Republican U.S. senators, Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham, in a series of Twitter posts on Thursday, raising fresh doubts about his ability to work with lawmakers in his own party to win passage of his legislative agenda, which includes tax cuts and infrastructure spending.

He took aim at the removal or consideration for removal of Confederate statues and monuments in a long list of cities in California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia, and Texas, as well as Washington, D.C.

"Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments . You can't change history, but you can learn from it," Trump wrote on Twitter, refusing to move past the controversy.

"Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!" Trump said. He was referring to two Confederate generals in the Civil War that ended in 1865, and to early U.S. presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves but whose legacies are overwhelmingly honored.

Opponents call the statues a festering symbol of racism, while supporters say they honor American history. Some of the monuments have become rallying points for white nationalists but also have the support of some people interested in historical preservation.

Trump also denied he had spoken of "moral equivalency" between white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members who clashed with anti-racism activists in Charlottesville.

U.S. stocks suffered their biggest drop in three months on Thursday as the turmoil surrounding the White House sapped investor confidence that Trump's ambitious economic agenda would become reality. Equity index futures fell a bit further after the close of regular trading, with S&P 500 emini futures heading into the overnight trading session about 2 points lower.

The U.S. stock market has not followed a 1%-down day with a second straight day of losses since Trump was elected in November, so Fridays session is being watched as a significant test of the markets resilience.

Amid the controversy, the White House knocked down rumors that Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn might resign. An official said Cohn "intends to remain in his position" as National Economic Council director at the White House.

Trump announced the disbanding of two high-profile business advisory councils on Wednesday after the resignation of several corporate executives over his Charlottesville remarks. On Thursday, a White House official said Trump had dropped plans for an advisory council on infrastructure.

In another indication of businesses not wanting to be associated with the president, the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic canceled a planned 2018 Florida fundraiser at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Florida resort, where it had held such events for seven straight years. Spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said the Cleveland Clinic considered "a variety of factors" in deciding to cancel an event that typically generates $1 million a year.

The clinic's chief executive, Toby Cosgrove, was a member of a one of the two councils that disbanded on Wednesday.

James Murdoch, chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox and son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, slammed Trumps response to Charlottesville in an email to friends and pledged to donate $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League, the New York Times reported.

James Murdoch wrote that Trumps comments should "concern all of us as Americans and free people," the Times said. Twenty-First Century Fox owns Fox News Channel, a favorite with Trump and his conservative supporters.

The Charlottesville violence erupted when white nationalists marched to protest against the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. A 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when a man described as a white nationalist crashed his car into the counter-protesters.

Trump has blamed the Charlottesville violence on not just the white nationalist rally organizers but also the counter-protesters, and said there were "very fine people" among both groups. He also expressed distaste for removing Confederate statues in a heated news conference on Tuesday.

After Trump blasted Graham on Twitter, the senator who was one of Trump's rivals for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination fired back.

"Because of the manner in which you have handled the Charlottesville tragedy you are now receiving praise from some of the most racist and hate-filled individuals and groups in our country. For the sake of our Nation - as our President - please fix this," Graham said. "History is watching us all."

Another Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, also said on Twitter: "Anything less than complete & unambiguous condemnation of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK by ( Trump ) is unacceptable. Period."

Graham had said on Wednesday Trump's remarks at his news conference the day before had suggested "moral equivalency" between the white nationalists and anti-racism demonstrators and called on the president to use his words to heal Americans.

"Publicity seeking Lindsey Graham falsely stated that I said there is moral equivalency between the KKK, neo-Nazis & white supremacists and people like Ms. Heyer. Such a disgusting lie. He just can't forget his election trouncing. The people of South Carolina will remember!" Trump wrote.

In a separate tweet, Trump called Flake "WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He's toxic!" and appeared to endorse Kelli Ward, Flake's Republican challenger in his 2018 re-election race.

Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, called for the immediate removal of Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol. U.S. Senator Cory Booker, also a Democrat, said he would introduce legislation so that could be done.

"There is no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of the men of the Confederacy in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol or in places of honor across the country," Pelosi said in a statement.

A spokesman for Republican U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said it was up to U.S. states to determine which statues were displayed on their behalf in the Capitol building.

Read the rest here:
Fellow Republicans Assail Trump After He Defends Confederate Monuments - TIME

The president of the United States is toxic, both to the country and to any who stand by him.

Donald Trump once carried only a stink, one that some with cold political calculation figured they could wash off if need be. But now he's gone toxic, radioactive, a slow but certain killer of reputations and careers.

That's what happens when you push and push and push the boundaries of normalcy, the edges of acceptable presidential behavior, and stretch them into areas blocked off long ago.

You don't try to gin up a moral equivalence to white supremacy or Naziism. You don't do most of the things Trump has done week in and week out since becoming president, and you damn sure don't take a moment of violent racism and selfishly spin it into a veiled defense of white power, all at the expense of a country in need of healing.

But that's what the president did, and now a question that has lingered for months without answer looms larger: When will congressional Republicans break loose of Trump?

The Muslim ban and its ensuing chaos wasn't enough. The incessant dishonesty and attacks on the press have been either ignored or, at times, embraced. Even the legislative flailing and the attacks on Republican lawmakers have passed with only mild rebukes.

And now this, in the wake of Charlottesville. The angry tweets and the angrier press conference and the seemingly unhinged, red-faced exhortations that there were "fine people" among the Tiki-torch carrying Nazis who chanted "Jews will not replace us!"

How much longer do Republicans in the House and Senate stand with a toxic president? When does concern for this country or concern that they, too, might become poisoned overwhelm a desire to keep Trump's dwindling supporters happy?

It's a question that demands an answer, because at the moment, Republicans in Congress are being morally outflanked by the executive director of the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce in Florida.

Three large fundraisers scheduled to take place at Trump's Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago club were canceled Thursday, and chamber of commerce head Laurel Baker pulled no punches in an interview with the Washington Post, calling the club "morally reprehensible" and saying: "The club is a member of the chamber. But right is right."

She told the newspaper her mantra this week is: "'The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.' Especially for nonprofits. Especially for groups who help people who can't help themselves."

Baker gets it. So does Apple CEO Tim Cook.

BuzzFeed obtained a copy of a staff email in which Cook wrote: "I disagree with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights. Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans."

The former members of the president's manufacturing council knew the right thing to do when they disbanded in the wake of Trump's Charlottesville comments.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement: "It is a leader's role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart."

The rabbi who oversaw Ivanka Trump's conversion to Judaism released a letter along with two other rabbis saying: "While we avoid politics, we are deeply troubled by the moral equivalency and equivocation President Trump has offered in response to this act of violence."

Even James Murdoch, the CEO of 21st Century Fox, the parent company of the heavily pro-Trump Fox News, broke with the president.

In an email to friends obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Murdoch wrote: "But what we watched this last week in Charlottesville and the reaction to it by the President of the United States concern all of us as Americans and free people. I can't even believe I have to write this: standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis."

He also pledged to donate $1 million to the Anti-Defamation League.

When you're losing big businesses, nonprofits trying to raise money, people who run local chambers of commerce, your daughter's rabbi and a Murdoch, you're toxic.

And still, it seems, the Republicans who got in bed with Trump are willing to lie there and absorb the toxins.

I don't understand why. I'll never understand why.

If it's political calculation, it's soulless. If it's quiet agreement with Trump's tough talk, it's even worse.

We are long past issues of policy. Companies and religious leaders and anyone with even a half-functioning moral compass are fleeing Trump not because they disagree with his policies but because his character is repellant, either to them or to the people they serve.

The president of the United States is exactly the person he showed himself to be during the campaign, and that reckless, bullying, wholly self-absorbed person is doing real harm to this country and to the political party he claims to lead.

I don't know when, or if, congressional Republicans will break. I don't know if there is a line in the sand.

But I know this: Standing near something toxic for too long is lethal. And I don't think the Republican Party wants to die.

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RexHuppke

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Trump, the Toxic President. When will Republicans have the sense to run? - Chicago Tribune

President Trump first asked reporters to define the "alt-right," before saying members of the "alt-left" were also to blame for violence in Charlottesville, while taking questions from reporters on Aug. 15 at Trump Tower in New York. (The Washington Post)

President Trump has dropped all pretense and proudly raised the banner of white racial grievance. The time has come for Republicans in Congress to decide whether this is what they signed up for.

Business leaders decided Wednesday that theyd had enough, quitting two presidential advisory councils before Trump quickly dissolved the panels. Military leaders made their call as well, issuing statements in the wake of Charlottesville making clear that they embrace diversity and reject bigotry.

With only a few exceptions, however, GOP political leaders have been too timid to denounce the president and the reprehensible game of racial politics hes playing. I think the corporate chief executives who bailed are making the right bet: History will remember who spoke out, who was complicit and who stood idly by.

On Twitter (where else?), Trump poured salt in the nations wounds Thursday by coming out firmly against the removal of public monuments to the Confederacy the issue that brought white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan to Charlottesville and led to the death of Heather Heyer.

Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments, he wrote. You cant change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson whos next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish!

President Donald Trumps reluctance to condemn bigotry suggests he does not want to heal the wounds of racism and white supremacy. Fred Hiatt, head of The Washington Post editorial board, says Americans still have reason to hope. (Adriana Usero,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

Some slippery-slope arguments are valid, but the one Trump makes is absurd. He cant possibly be so dense that he doesnt see a clear distinction between the men who founded this nation and those who tried to rip it apart.

Trump may indeed not know that most of those Confederate monuments were erected not in the years right after the Civil War but around the turn of the 20thcentury, when the Jim Crow system of state-enforced racial oppression was being established. They symbolize not history but the defiance of history; they celebrate not defeat on the battlefield but victory in putting uppity African Americans back in their place.

But even if someone explained all of this to Trump perhaps in a one-page memo with lots of pictures he wouldnt care. For him, the important thing is to tell the white voters who constitute his base that they are being disrespected and dispossessed. Its a cynical and dangerous ploy.

We know this is Trumps game because White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon told us so. In an interview with journalist Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect, published Wednesday, Bannon is quoted as saying: The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.

But Trumps base wont identify with Nazis and the KKK. Thats why Trump maintained falsely that among the torch-bearing Charlottesville white supremacists there were also plenty of very fine people. And its why he now seeks to broaden the issue to encompass Confederate monuments nationwide, abandoning his earlier position that the question should be left to local jurisdictions.

Thats probably also why Bannon, in the interview with Kuttner, referred to the white-power clowns as, well, clowns. Hes smart enough to reassure Trump supporters that theyre not like those racists and that all the racial game-playing is on the other side.

Trumps desperation is palpable. His approval ratings have slid perilously close to the danger zone where Republican officeholders no longer fear crossing him.

For titans of the business community, the tipping point came Wednesday. The chief executives of General Electric, Campbell Soup, Johnson & Johnson and 3M decided they could no longer serve on Trumps advisory Manufacturing Council or his Strategy & Policy Forum.

Why stick around? Prospects that Trump can actually follow through on a business-friendly agenda, including tax reform, look increasingly dim. And Trumps many sides reaction to Charlottesville wasnt going over at all well with employees, customers or the executives themselves.

Constructive economic and regulatory policies are not enough and will not matter if we do not address the divisions in our country, JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon wrote in a message to his employees. It is a leaders role, in business or government, to bring people together, not tear them apart.

The chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and National Guard also publicly condemned hate groups in the wake of Charlottesville. They, of course, could not mention the commander in chief by name.

But politicians can. And they must.

Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.

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History will remember the Republicans who stick around - Washington Post

An influential McLean County Republican leader said Thursdaythat the local GOP chairman should not have shared a controversial post this week on the party's Facebook page. She also said the resulting backlash was "beyond deplorable" and may energize local Republicans going into next year's elections.

McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael issued a lengthy statement on her Facebook page, her first public comments on a controversy that's ensnared local Republicans all week.

It began Tuesday night, when McLean County Republican Party chairman Chuck Erickson shared a message on the party's Facebook page that sided with President Donald Trump and his widely condemned "both sides" remarks on Charlottesville. By Wednesday morning, several Republicans were distancing themselves from the comments. Erickson issued a clarifying statement that condemned the KKK and neo-Nazis.

"I don't always agree with GOP Chairman Erickson, but I can tell you one thing for certain. This man is no racist," Michael said in her Facebook post on Thursday. "Many more can tell you this man has done more to help war veterans and all veterans than anyone you or I know. But you don't want to believe that, do you? It doesn't fit your political narrative. To paint him as a racist is dishonorable and nearly unforgivable.

"I agree that (Erickson) should not have used the GOP Facebook page to air his strong beliefs. I also believe him when he says his remarks were misinterpreted," Michael said.

Michael said questions about what she thinks of Nazis are "insulting." She called for those upset about the backlash to take action in March's primary election and the November general election.

Michael herself is expected to face a challenge next November from Democrat Nikita Richards. Both would have to win the primary before going head-to-head.

Michaeltook aim at those who are painting all local Republicans as racist.

"And to you I say thank you. Thank you for energizing the good Republicans who may have not been energized before," Michael said.

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Clerk To GOP Critics: 'Thank You for Energizing' Republicans - WGLT News