Stora tråden om amerikansk inrikespolitik

Surgeon general is removed by Trump administration, replaced by deputy for now

Donald Trump averaged 41% job approval during his first quarter as president, 14 percentage points lower than any other president in Gallup's polling history. Bill Clinton had the previous low mark of 55%. The average first-quarter rating among post-World War II presidents elected to their first term is 61%, with John Kennedy's 74% the highest.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer told CNN that he expects something on the commission within the "next week or two, but I don't want to get ahead of that."

Another senior administration official said that the formation of the commission "has not been a topic of a lot of conversation" in the White House, and said it was not something discussed recently with the vice president either.

To be clear, it isn’t that hard to keep the government’s lights on.

Fights over short-term spending bills have long been used by Republicans and Democrats as proxies for broader policy fights. But with Republicans fully in control of Washington, President Trump has turned a sure thing into a major drama, with a Friday night deadline before much of the government shuts down.

Congressional appropriators, always happy to spend money together, seemed on a glide path to do so, until Mr. Trump intervened, insisting on using the bill to get a down payment on a wall at the Mexican border that even many Republicans are leery of and that he has long insisted would be paid for by Mexico. He appeared to soften his demand late Monday, saying he would settle for additional funds for border security — potentially including at least part of the wall, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Suddenly, a spending bill that was meant to be a mere legislative grace note to much larger health care and tax policy bills has become the centerpiece of another down-to-the-wire battle.

“The Wall is a very important tool in stopping drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth (and many others)!” Mr. Trump said Monday on Twitter.

The president’s habit of tossing hornets into Republican policy picnics has hampered his agenda and demonstrated the lack of experience among his staff in working with Capitol Hill to get things done. His lack of early engagement on the health care bill helped lead to its demise, and his early efforts at a tax bill were disorganized — he announced he had one even though critical staff members and congressional leaders knew nothing of it. Those stumbles and his current flirtation with a government shutdown demonstrate a continued pattern of playing to his base rather than governing.