Likely the influence of the new Chief Of Staff here, Retired General john kelly who has been clear, trying to send a signal there is a new sheriff in town. That hes not going to tolerate discord and some of these tweets that are off message. But will we see this over the course of time . That remains to be seen. Weve had sort of the pockets of the president being very restrained when it comes to his messaging. I think when it comes to the relationship on capitol hill and this next battle that you talk about, the challenges, not only do you have republicans, conservatives like jeff flake speaking out, obviously hes been critical of candidate trump all the way back to the campaign trail, but republicans just dont seem that afraid of him. Thats why you have Lisa Murkowski saying im going to vote against you in the health care fight. How does he get republicans on board to get tax reform done . The reality may be that theyre looking at tax cuts, because they dont have that big, broad
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its self governing status? i think he s gonna wear aid on his face on this one. they decided there is a group in the trump wing of the republican party. they ve decided they re going to go full on culture war. they re going to act in a way where they think that s going to lead them to the presidency. that s a very small minded strategy. they may get some radical right wingers. they re gonna vote for them, but ultimately it s going to be a uniter on the side of the republicans that wins the presidential primary primaries, not someone like rod desantis, who acts like a bowie, who s incredibly tribal. who s actually acting as a non conservative. conservatives are supposed to be pro business. this disney was operating in that special district for years, the way everyone wanted them to. he just didn t like what they were saying about a law that he
politics of this country as they are. howie: is it a challenge for you and your colleagues when he does things relate together government shutdown or pulling out of syria that clash with the principles you happen to believe in? ben: i happen to agree with the president s decision when it comes to syria. but i don t think we should use these things as being of only one ideological spectrum. he does things that are conservative and non-conservative. i think you can evaluate those things as they are. particularly on issues of trade and unfortunately not debated on the right for so long. the president cracked that open in ways i don t necessarily like in every aspect. but he makes them a focus of debate. it s as opposed to pretending
what we ll try to do is correspond the culture and politics of this country as they are. howie: is it a challenge for you and your colleagues when he does things relate together government shutdown or pulling out of syria that clash with the principles you happen to believe in? ben: i happen to agree with the president s decision when it comes to syria. but i don t think we should use these things as being of only one ideological spectrum. he does things that are conservative and non-conservative. i think you can evaluate those things as they are. particularly on issues of trade and unfortunately not debated on the right for so long. the president cracked that open in ways i don t necessarily like in every aspect. but he makes them a focus of
doing what donald trump is doing, except in reverse, which is making a statement about what he sees the values and the tone of the republican party should be. donald trump has a tone that he thinks should be the tone of the republican party. jeff flake, he reminded me of mitt romney. ever use the phrase compassionate conservative? when mitch mcconnell brings forward a bill, of course jeff flake is going to vote for that. donald trump has no policy ideology. he doesn t have any policies he wants to advance. he was brazen and bold saying i don t think people care about policy on the campaign trail. so yes, jeff flake is going to vote with the policies. jeff flake is a conventional republican conservative. donald trump is an unconventional, non-republican, non-conservative. and most of the base of the