Donald Trump’s demand for loyalty will make it impossible for him to govern

You may remember that on Thursday, we reported that Mitt Romney accused Mitch McConnell of being “ambiguous” in a meeting with Senate Republicans where McConnell spoke about the politics around a deal that would restrict immigration in exchange for aid to Ukraine. Romney — a longtime Trump critic — also suggested that Trump was trying to kill the bill so he could “blame Biden” for a surge of migrants at the US-Mexican border.

Later on Thursday, Trump responded to Romney’s accusations. “He knows nothing about me, or my views,” the former president wrote on Truth Social, and continued in his all-caps style: “we need a Strong, Powerful, and essentially ‘PERFECT’ Border and, unless we get that, we are better off not making a Deal.”

Trump and Romney have one of the most tortured relationships in recent Republican history. Trump endorsed Romney when the latter ran and lost to Barack Obama (that was back when Trump was pushing the racist conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States.) Romney didn’t exactly return the favor; he came out against Trump in 2016. But after Trump won, he and Romney dined together. It was said that the former Massachusetts governor hoped to become secretary of state.

Yet, when Romney won a Senate seat in Utah, he became the first senator to vote to convict a president of their own party in an impeachment trial — and he did so twice with Trump.

Romney can afford to speak out against Trump largely because he will leave the Senate at the end of this year. At the same time, despite only serving one term, he’s one of the most effective negotiators in the Senate. During Trump’s presidency, he negotiated most of the Covid-19 relief packages. He also collaborated with President Joe Biden