Jonathan Swan: “Last year, the head of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Andrew Bremberg, told senior administration officials and Hill staff about an idea he had to tie the hands of future Democratic presidents. The idea would be for Trump to introduce a series of hardcore left-wing regulations — e.g. on climate change, the environment, labor and health care. Then, the Republican-controlled Congress would disapprove of these regulations using a law called the Congressional Review Act. That would bar future administrations introducing ‘substantially similar’ regulations.”

“Trump administration officials are no longer seriously entertaining this idea, largely because Bremberg and others have recognized that it’s politically infeasible. Republicans only have a one-vote margin in the Senate, and there’s no way Mitch McConnell would waste precious floor time on such a moonshot.”

David Frum: “The Trump presidency has been a disorienting moment in American political life. Imagine a time traveler starting in the year 1990. He steps forward 25 years to 2015. Who are the leading candidates for president? Bush and Clinton — again! What are the top issues? Iraq and healthcare — again! Now step backwards 25 years from 1965. The most powerful men in Washington are the head of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 55 unions across the US, and J. Edgar Hoover. There’s a draft and a telephone monopoly and urban riots and liberal Republicans. It’s a different world.”

“I sometimes feel that what Trump has done is restore motion to a political system that froze in place when the baby-boomers reached middle age. What’s coming next? Something radically different. The baby-boomers will keep ageing, and their dependence on government will grow. Trump discovered and confirmed that ethnocultural resentment mobilizes conservative voters better than economic issues ever did.”

“The Republicans seem to be heading for heavy losses in this year’s elections — making Trump even more important as a single remaining focal point for party identity and party loyalty. Voters who cannot stomach Trump, especially college-educated women, are quitting the GOP. What will be left is a party that no longer commands a national voting majority. Only one Republican has done that since 1988 — George W. Bush in 2004 — and then only barely. But what Republicans are also discovering is that with sufficiently ruthless methods, a national voting majority may not be needed to wield national power. That’s part of the meaning of Trumpocracy, and it’s more disturbing than Trump’s fast-food diet.”

President Trump denies calling Haiti and African nations “shithole countries” in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers but conservative radio host Erick Erickson reports Trump himself called friends to brag about it afterwards.

Said Erickson: “I spoke to one of those friends. The President thought it would play well with the base.”