Donald Trump has never been known for his ideological consistency.
During his first term, Trump showed little reservation with reversing himself on issues ranging from health care and immigration to entitlement programs and LGBTQ+ rights. He even publicly trashed an omnibus spending deal, and the lawmakers who voted for it, as he signed the legislation into law.
More recently, Trump has flip-flopped on issues like a TikTok ban, marijuana legalization, vaping, the filibuster, cryptocurrency and the State and Local Tax deduction.
And so far, less than two weeks before he takes office again, Trump has given Republicans whiplash over his shifting positions on a reconciliation bill. One moment he seems to be forcefully advocating for a single bill approach, the next he’s saying he’ll take whatever he can get.
Ahead of inauguration, congressional Republicans who were here for Trump’s first stint in office are already having flashes of PTSD — and they’re warning newer colleagues that they need to maintain flexibility, lest Trump have one of his classic reversals.
“The puppies who’ve not been around him are in a state of glow; the senior members are in intestinal knots, waiting to see what happens. Because you don’t know what he’s going to do,” one longtime GOP member told NOTUS.
Another veteran Republican emphasized that “members here during the first round know he can change his mind on a whim,” adding that, this time around, Republicans want Trump to be very clear, both privately and publicly, about what he wants.
In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary for Trump, said the president-elect has made it very clear what his priorities are and each one was explicitly spelled out during the campaign.
“He wants to ensure all of these policies that help all Americans are done as quickly as possible to undo all of the damage from the last four years,” Leavitt said.
But members and staff alike are getting déjà vu, telling NOTUS the best thing to do is not make any declarative statements until you know for sure what he wants.
“He was like that his last admin,” one senior GOP aide told NOTUS. “It’s basically running out the clock with him.”
GOP lawmakers specifically pointed to the 2017 health care bill, in which House Republicans stuck out their necks to pass a measure that undermined protections for people with preexisting conditions — only to have Trump label the legislation as “mean.”
This time around, members want Trump to publicly take positions so it’s more difficult for him to throw them under the bus. And Republicans told NOTUS that private reassurances from the White House team wouldn’t cut it.
“It’s going to be, ‘What do you want, and are you going to lead the charge?’” one of the veteran GOP lawmakers said. “Because with this slim of a majority, he’s going to have to lean in heavily to get everyone on the same page on some of these complicated issues.”
A third Republican member said the incoming president’s flip-flopping was just how Trump operates.
“He always floats things out there, and then if he gets a little bit of pushback, he adjusts how he’s going to move forward,” this member said. “This is how he negotiates and gets things done. It’s frustrating, but it can be effective. I just think that’s very much what it is.”
While there are Republicans who want Trump to weigh in before they go out on a limb, some lawmakers suggested those expectations weren’t realistic.
“It’s an impossible task, he’s not wired that way,” the third GOP lawmaker said. “And we have to adjust around the way that he’s wired in order to be successful.”
Still, this Republican said “the majority of the majority” would love “stability.”
“We would love a game plan that we can stick to that gives us a metric on how to accomplish a matter at hand,” this lawmaker said.
As this lawmaker pointed out, however, that may be a tall task.
Trump’s impulsive style of governing has always presented problems for Republicans, particularly vulnerable GOP lawmakers. His insistence in 2017 that Congress pass a health care plan led many House Republicans to go back on promises to protect people with preexisting conditions — all for the plan to fall apart in the Senate anyway.
One of those vulnerable Republicans, Rep. Don Bacon, attributed much of the issue to the fact that Trump is more of a “big picture guy” who is less concerned with process and specific policies.
Sen. Kevin Cramer said that while it’s helpful to “make a play call and stick with it,” Trump is ultimately just responding to “real life challenges and opportunities that end up being presented.”
“I think he’ll actually provide some stability,” Cramer said. “And even if there are pivots that are made along the way, he’s pretty good at bringing people along, so I think it’ll be good to get him here.”
Cramer added that one of Trump’s strengths is that he’s constantly communicating with people and listening to their ideas, even if that sometimes leads to him shifting his positions.
One of the House members closest to Trump, Rep. Ronny Jackson — Trump’s former White House physician — seconded Cramer’s sentiment, saying Trump “wouldn’t be an effective leader, a competent leader, if he didn’t take different people’s advice and work that into his final decision.”
And if Trump does change his mind and make life more difficult for members of Congress, Jackson said members shouldn’t be concerned; they should just execute his latest vision.
“His instincts are always right,” Jackson told NOTUS.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.