Saunders: Attack on Republicans a risky strategy for Trump

Trump dropped his no-name directive in a Wednesday morning tweet: “Phoenix crowd last night was amazing — a packed house. I love the Great State of Arizona. Not a fan of Jeff Flake, weak on crime & border!”

“I think it’s a very risky strategy,” said John Tuman, chairman of the UNLV Department of Political Science. “They have such a razor-thin majority in the Senate.”

Trump cannot afford to lose any of the 52 Republican votes in the Senate on future legislation, as happened with health care. And Trump has jeopardized the GOP’s slim majority by targeting Flake, who is up for re-election in 2018.

Earlier this year, Trump made Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., more vulnerable when he singled him out during a session with GOP senators. “Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?” Trump asked — on camera. Heller voted for the skinny repeal bill; still, perennial candidate Danny Tarkanian chose to oppose him in a Republican primary.

Flake also voted for the skinny repeal bill — but Trump has praised Flake’s primary challenger Kelli Ward on Twitter.

“Why force people to use their resources fending off a primary challenge?” Tuman asked.

Emotion, not strategy

John Hart, a Republican strategist who was communications director for former Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sees Trump’s criticism of Flake as “an enormous mistake.”

As Hart sees it, Trump’s hits on Flake present a distraction from the president’s agenda. “And he’s handing the quote-unquote fake news media a very real story about an intra-party battle,” Hart said.

After multiple queries, the closest comment to a defense of Trump’s forays against GOP politicians came from a Republican close to the White House, who did not want to be named. He saw the president “trying to preserve his image as an outsider by criticizing specific lawmakers for inaction by Congress” — in an effort that is counterproductive.

Tuman noted, “I’m continuously surprised at his inability to put things aside” to further his agenda. That’s a strike against Trump — the suspicion that there is no strategy, only emotion, behind his spats.

McConnell’s office highlighted Trump’s volatility when it downplayed reports of the McConnell-Trump feud. “There are a lot of things that we talk about, but what we don’t talk about is feelings,” McConnell Communications Director David Popp said.

Former California Gov. Pete Wilson, a Trump supporter, believes Trump and McConnell need to meet privately to air their grievances and focus on winning the 2018 midterm election. “You don’t gratuitously inflict injury,” he said, “and if you’ve got grievances, you air them in private.”