The Republican revolt on the Senate floor followed a haphazard and erratic persuasion effort from Trump that offers a vivid encapsulation of how this White House has struggled to influence Congress.
In the days before the vote, the president initially made few moves to try to stem GOP defections.
Trump told senators that he knew they wouldn’t be able to override his veto and appeared to see little upside to cutting a deal on his signature issue. He made little effort to whip wavering GOP senators during a Wednesday afternoon meeting on trade, and said they could vote however they pleased…
While Trump tried to persuade senators to stick with him in tweets and in remarks to the news media, he never targeted any lawmaker by name and didn’t appear to be working the phones with particular vigor to change any minds.
