Donald Trump Best Trick Mike DeBonis , Troy Newmyer Washington DC October 2017
It Was Candidate Trump ' s Best Trick ... Now It ' s Stalling President Trump ' s Agenda
By Mike DeBonis and Tory Newmyer The Washington Post
After eight months of negotiations , White House officials and Republican leaders last week arrived at a secret , hard-fought compromise : They would push to lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent . On Sunday , President Trump walked alone to a group ofreporters on a runway in New Jersey and told them his preference for the corporate tax : 15 percent .
It ' s indicative of an approach Trump has employed throughout his presidency : He has taken a hands-off approach to working out policy details , keeping clear of granular discussions and declining to take a stand on the thorniest questions . When plans are almost ready , he has - again and again - demanded that they be , in vague terms , better .
The approach was successful as a presidential candidate : It allowed Trump to promise his presidency would yield big benefits for his supporters , But by not laying out details of how he planned to deliver , he left his opponents with little to latch onto . As president , however , it has yet to yield a major legislative victory - despite Republicans controlling both the House and Senate . " It ' s the chickens coming home to roost ," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin , a fom1er Congressional Budget Office director who advised Sen . John McCain ( R-Ariz .) during his 2008 presidential run . " This operating style I don ' t think serves the process very well , and I think he got trapped into it by not being specific enough on the campaign ."