There has been a simmering discord between President Donald Trump and political opponents, but the notion Democrats might suck it up and work with his agenda to move legislation for the good of the people is all but gone, lawmakers told Politico.
"There is zero chance of any of this working out that way, and it doesn't matter who you're changing," Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told Politico. "At the end of the day, this is Donald Trump, and we don't want to work with him."
In some ways, President Trump's inability to unite even his own party has unraveled any hope of working with the Democrats on legislation at this point.
"There is no dog wagging the tail, and there is no tail wagging the dog," Gallego added. "What would we be working with?
"He doesn't control votes. He doesn't control the Freedom Caucus. He doesn’t control the Republicans. Their operation isn't strong enough, we can't deal with them. [House Speaker Paul] Ryan himself is not strong enough."
Democrats are fully ready to sieze on that opportunity to resist everything he puts forth now that he has proven incapable of uniting even his own.
"Initially people didn't have a full appreciation of how he would conduct himself," Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., a chair of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee, told Politico. "They thought, 'He won, he wasn't our choice, but he is our president.'
"What I'm hearing from my constituents – even some who've been more ambivalent – it's really important to stand up and resist and try to mitigate the damage that he's likely to cause.
"People are really conflicted because they want government to work, and they know that's when we can produce good results, but I think that they're beginning to lose confidence that this administration and this president are interested in getting things done."
There had been some thought a left-and-right battle in President Trump's inner White House circle between senior adviser Jared Kushner and chief strategist Steve Bannon might help sway the agenda more toward the middle and be workable for Democrats in Congress, but even that hope has diminished as the 100-day mark has been reached.
"This notion of the battle between Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon and who prevails is irrelevant in many ways to the policies," Cicilline told Politico. "What Democrats are responding to is the substance of the policies — it doesn't matter who wins the internal battles in the White House."
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