President Trump, all-powerful loser

The most inexplicable thing about president Trump is how much political control he has over the Republican Party, and how poorly he has used that leverage for policy gain. He has a massive influence in Republican primaries, and has used that to purge the party of various Members over the last decade. There isn't an organized anti-Trump GOP faction on the Hill anymore, and that's largely of Trump's making. Almost all the members who voted to impeach or convict him are gone. We could bicker over exactly how much power Trump has over the party, but it is unquestionably as much or more as any other president. On the other hand, his policy record—especially on anything he needs Congress to do—is one of significant failure. To wit: Jonathan Bernstein has been cataloging (here, here, here, here) all the ways the president has lost in public policy debates during his second term. It's an impressive list of failure. He loses votes constantly in the legislature. They completely ignore his…