The VP was touting a bill that the president threatened to veto just hours before. But he hedged with “this bill isn’t perfect” talk—the appropriate segue into pushing congressional authorization for a line-item veto, “so the president can fund the priorities of the American people and protect taxpayers at the same time.” Ripping Congress is typically an effective applause line, for a president of either party. On percentage, Trump’s popularity among Republicans remains well into the 80s. But a CBS News poll earlier in March found that the split between Republicans satisfied and dissatisfied with the productivity of GOP congress members was 60/37.

This is not an insignificant gap. It underscores the notion that Trump supporters—who comprise the overwhelming majority of his party—are on the side of Trump, rather than congressional Republicans, or even the party generally. When Trump succeeds, GOP congressmen merely are legionnaires. When he fails, they’re obstacles.

But when Trump approves, even reluctantly, the legislation those Trumpists despise—whether for a lack of assertiveness on the border, or because of too much money spent abroad, or too much money, in general (that an ironic hallmark of recent fiscal conservatism)—who is to say they won’t blur the White House with the speaker’s office?