Bob Schwartz

Follow this through, because there is a (surprise?) twist at the end.

Trump wants Ukraine to lose its war with Russia. Whether that’s because Putin wants it, or because it would allow Trump to claim he ended the war, or because he is demonstrating that 5-dimensional statesmanship he is known for, it doesn’t matter. That’s what he wants.

Most Americans, including many Republicans, are on Ukraine’s side. Trump openly helping Russia win might affect Republican votes, even just a little, in the midterm election.

Trump doesn’t care. Here’s why:

Trump plans on neutralizing any voting and election results that go against Republicans. There are many ways this could be done. We don’t know which ones are going to be put into play until the election, but it will happen.

And now, the promised twist. Even if Democrats are in charge of one or both houses of the next Congress in January, that won’t matter to him. If interference with the election fails, he will continue to rule mostly by executive action and order, as he has for two years. With the exception of some big and damaging bills, most of the damage has been from unitary executive governance, that is, from Trump. No change in Congress is going to affect that. Maybe there will be some adverse Supreme Court rulings, but those take a long time, have often gone his way, and most importantly, he plans on ignoring many of the adverse court rulings, even from the highest court.

That’s why he doesn’t care if whatever he says or does, such as helping Russia win, hurts Republicans. Those Republicans matter almost as little as Democrats—even Democrats who might control Congress—in Trump America.