A year ago, President-Elect Donald Trump was faced with one mirage and one trap. He got suckered by the first and walked right into the second.

The mirage was the amount of power he would wield. Having won a trifecta of control in elected government—the presidency and majorities in the U.S. House and Senate—and spewing the kind of manic vitriol usually associated with Elon Musk on ketamine , Trump thought he could cow any opposition and get anything he wanted.

But as I wrote at the time, the shimmering post-election heat was distorting the picture. Congressional Republicans are actually fractious at best, like a room of feral cats the rest of the time—which is why Trump passed only one major piece of legislation in his first term and Republican House speakers last as long as the aver

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