ALWAYS BET ON THE dEEP sTATE:

[I]n the broadest sense, the resistance he's encountering is due to America's system of governance. The story of his early presidency might easily be called "Donald Trump meets the Founding Fathers," as a beginner politician runs up against the checks and balances that are designed to prevent tyranny and forge consensus.

Trump and his team are "surprised at the intransigence and resistance they're meeting, when in fact, every other president has met them," says Don Ritchie, former Senate historian. This outsider White House "didn't anticipate these things because they hadn't experienced these things," as former governors or legislators, like other presidents and senior White House officials.

During the honeymoon phase of a new administration, presidents can make significant headway. Barack Obama and George W. Bush scored some major legislative wins, when their parties, too, controlled both the House and Senate.

By the first August recess, a Democratic Congress had passed President Obama's big economic stimulus package, confirmed a Supreme Court justice, and was deep into the policy weeds of health care, which would become law early the next year. In his first year, President Bush got a $1.35 trillion tax cut and Congress passed landmark education reform with bipartisan support. [...]

The common notion is that it's presidents versus the opposition party in Congress, "but it's really presidents versus Congress as an institution," says Mr. Ritchie, the former Senate historian, recalling President Kennedy's observation that he didn't realize how powerful Congress was until he was no longer just one of its 535 members.

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