Look to the issues...

I'm always hesitant to read the news these days. It seems like on policy proposal after another comes out from the Trump administration, doomed from the get-go, with little coordination or marketing behind the individual pieces of legislation. Because of the lack of organization, it's not that I'm worried these laws will pass, but it still hurts to see them be offered. Every time.

But I'm going to suggest that there is actually a strategy that underlies the entirety of the recent set of policy proposals, including Scarmucci's dismissal (not really a policy thing, but still), the Russia sanctions, the transgender ban, and today's new rules on immigration.

That strategy is distraction.

This, of course, is not at all new within the Trump administration. Nor is the "distraction" idea a new one. But, with this series of legislative issues (including health-care), most of which are non-starters in Congress, I think we've got a window into what the President is distracting us from.

His failing Presidency.

How might further legislative failures distract from Trump's own failures, you might ask? Because he wants to swing the story to Congress - and Congressional Republicans should be wary. If you read most of Trump's recent statements, including the statement regarding the sanctions on Russia, you can see the growing anger that Congress simply wont just roll over and do what the President wants.

While Trump usually reserves his ire for Democrats in Congress (along with specific Republicans who vote against him), the recent statements demonstrate that he now needs someone else to blame, because along with the Russia distraction (which, so far, is what it has been politically speaking), it's tough to blame the team with fewer players for continually upsetting your plans. It makes you look weak.

Perhaps more importantly, however, Congress is finally signaling some independence. They have created a bi-partisan commission to examine how Obamacare can be supported until (and if) the GOP can finally come up with something else that can make it through Congress. They sent him the sanctions against Russia with a veto-proof majority. They are already staking out ground on immigration that doesn't fall lock-step with the President's position. They told him what would happen if he fired Mueller.

These are not trivial, particularly for a President who views any dissent as a betrayal.

So why these issues now? Why the trans-ban and immigration despite their likely failure?

Because Trump himself is failing, and his only hope is to stir his base - a base largely motivated by various prejudices - into enough of a frenzy that they scare the moderate Republicans in line. It's basically the same move that the Freedom Caucus made 2 cycles ago, but less likely to work because Trump's brand of populism is based solely on a cult of personality, which is itself based around success. As Turmp fails, so will his populism.

So, prediction time: Trump will continue to push doomed legislation in order to show that Congress is the "real" failure, and these will be increasingly divisive, hot-button, issues, but they will continue to fail. This, in turn, will motivate the die-hards, but will be an overall losing strategy, because he will continue to own the failures.

Let's see if I'm right!