Trump’s Hill Outreach Aide Exits, Complains About ‘Diminishing Returns’ in Pushing President’s Goals

Marc Short, the former top aide to the Koch brothers who is the President’s liaison to Congress, will leave as early as this summer, says the Wall Street Journal.

Short is also complaining that he cannot get Trump’s agenda endorsed by Congres, “lamenting to colleagues the ‘diminishing returns’ of [his] pushing President Donald Trump’s agenda through the Republican-controlled Congress as the midterm elections approach, according to people familiar with the conversations,” says the WSJ report.

Short’s exit and replacement are important, partly because he is widely regarded as a champion for the GOP establishment’s priorities, but not for the President’s populist priorities, such as funding for a border wall.

Short is a former top manager for the business donors in the Koch brothers’ political network, and he also worked for Vice-President Mike Pence who did not have a populist record before 2016.

Short played a leading role in persuading Congress to pass the December 2017 tax cuts.

Since then, Trump’s focus and agenda has turned to more populist priorities, such as a reduction in immigration numbers. The reductions will pressure companies to raise wages and develop labor-saving, higher-productivity machinery, so they are loudly opposed by the GOP donors. Short failed to get Trump’s populist immigration policy and border-wall funded in the 2017 and 2018 omnibus bills,  or getting Trump’s immigration policy approved by the Senate in a February 2018 debate.

The WSJ reports:

Mr. Short’s tenure has been marked by ups and downs, reflecting the Trump administration’s legislative record. The main legislative accomplishment so far has been the tax package that Republicans approved in December, although some inside the White House have argued that Mr. Cohn and his team deserved much of the credit.

But the White House was unable to repeal the Affordable Care Act, has abandoned its push for an infrastructure spending package, and has been unable to find consensus within the Republican Party on an immigration overhaul.

Short has played a lower-profile role in the House debate over immigration reform and amnesty.