Reporter’s Notebook: Alcohol, not coffee

Republicans control the House and Senate.

But characterizing it as the “Republican Congress” doesn’t do justice to the present circumstances.

This truly is “President Trump’s Congress.”

The president’s relationship with Republican lawmakers is light-years away from the fraught, shotgun marriage of 2017 after he unexpectedly captured the White House. Republicans on Capitol Hill didn’t know what to do with him.

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Congressional Republicans “didn’t read the tweets.” They snickered behind his back. They chortled at what they believed were untenable ideas emanating from the White House.

And Trump also didn’t know what to do with congressional Republicans, either.

He and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., formed the Odd Couple of politics.

But Trump’s relationship with then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was even worse.

So they focused on areas of agreement. Congressional Republicans viewed the Trump presidency as a means to an end. They saw an opportunity to pass some of their legislative priorities.

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President Donald Trump and outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell have a contentious relationship. (AP Photo; Reuters)

McConnell muscled three of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominees to confirmation, altering the contours of the high court for a generation. Ryan bored deeply into his area of expertise: tax policy. By Christmas 2017, the Republican-led Congress approved the vaunted “Trump tax cuts.”

But they stumbled early on repealing and replacing ObamaCare.

“I will not sugarcoat this. This is a disappointing day for us,” said Ryan when he had to yank an initial plan to end ObamaCare off the floor in the spring of 2017.

The House finally approved a revamped repeal and replace package more than a month later. But the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., torpedoed the effort with his vote against the plan later that summer.

But things are different this time around between Trump and congressional Republicans.

“He’s still the biggest dog in the pound,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.

Rep. Tim Burchett speaks to reporters upon arrival at a House Republican Conference meeting on Nov. 14, 2023, in Washington. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)

So now congressional Republicans are teaming with the president to pass his “big, beautiful…