Maddow Blog | Trump keeps trying and failing to call the shots on Capitol Hill

A couple of weeks ago, as Congress weighed how and whether to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Donald Trump intervened in the hopes of derailing the effort.

“KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS,” the former president wrote by way of his social media platform. “THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!”

As far as reality was concerned, the Republican’s declaration was absurd. There were plenty of credible opponents of FISA offering substantive criticisms of the surveillance law, but Trump wasn’t among them: “They” never used FISA to “spy on” his 2016 campaign.

Just as notably, the presumptive GOP nominee didn’t just get his facts wrong, he also failed: Though it took a few tries, the Republican-led House ultimately approved the FISA legislation, Trump’s demands about “killing” it notwithstanding. Late last week, a bipartisan majority passed the same bill in the Senate, sending it to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature.

A day later, as the Republican-led House prepared to take up U.S. security aid for Ukraine, Trump didn’t explicitly denounce the legislation, though he wasn’t especially subtle ahead of the vote. Politico reported late last week:

Again, to the extent that reality matters in this debate, Europe has made significant investments — including taking in a great many Ukrainian refugees — and Trump’s dismissal of our allies’ efforts was wrong.

But if the purpose of the rhetoric was to help derail efforts on Capitol Hill to advance Ukraine security aid, that didn’t work out, either: Republican leaders brought the bill to the floor on Saturday, and it passed with over 300 bipartisan votes.

Yes, in both the FISA and Ukraine votes, it was members of the House Democratic minority who ended up providing most of the necessary support, but the bottom line remains the same: Trump, even after leaving the White House, has long acted as if he could call the shots on Capitol Hill.

If he’s paid attention, the former president now knows better.

Trump told House Republicans to elect Rep. Jim Jordan as House speaker, and that didn’t happen. Trump told Republicans to shut down the government, and that didn’t happen. Trump told Republicans to use the debt ceiling to default on the country’s obligations, and that didn’t happen.

As regular readers might recall, Trump told Senate Republicans to replace Mitch McConnell as the Senate minority leader, and they didn’t. Trump told Republicans to derail a bipartisan infrastructure package, and they didn’t. Trump seemed especially eager for GOP lawmakers to kill an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act, and they didn’t do that, either.

The point is not that Trump is irrelevant in Republican politics. Obviously, he’s the party’s most dominant voice. But there’s a myth in some circles that the former president can simply bark orders and watch GOP lawmakers obediently follow his instructions.

In several notable instances, that’s just not the case.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com