Trump regime rife with conflict but also with rightwing success

Gideon Resnick, Daily Beast -Donald Trump’s presidency has been rife with conflict and controversy since it began. But in the midst of a quickening special counsel investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election, the administration is still managing to reshape the country in profound ways.

This dichotomy has left Democrats with the task of juggling between the drumbeat of Russia talk and kitchen table issues. And it’s left Trump allies both exuberant and fretful.

The dichotomy came into sharper focus this week as the Senate passed a once-in-a-generation tax overhaul—tilted largely to corporations and the upper class—the same day that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team announced that it had secured a plea deal with former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

... In the midst of this growing cloud, however, the Trump administration has been churning out legislative and administrative accomplishments. The president has ramped up his nominations of federal judges, issued executive orders which have greatly damaged the Affordable Care Act, and most recently took the upper hand in a fight to control the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That’s in addition to the tax bill, which, if it passes, would not just overhaul the economic foundations of America but also have major impacts in the energy and health care sectors too.