Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

This Is What a Sidelined President Looks Like

Is Trump lashing out on Twitter out of political strength or weakness?

November 29, 2017 at 11:00 AM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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It's remarkable just how irrelevant President Donald Trump has become on Capitol Hill -- and how he keeps finding ways to make it easier for everyone to ignore him. As long as the cameras aren't rolling, at least.

Tuesday, for example, Trump had a meeting scheduled with congressional leaders from both parties over the overdue spending bills that Congress is still bargaining over. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pulled out after he tweeted insults at them, declaring, "I don't see a deal!"