Democrats spoil Trump's one-year anniversary of winning the White House

It’s been a year since President Trump shocked the world by winning the White House in an election most political observers were certain was going the other way, a fact Trump continues to regularly tout in his public speeches and telephone conversations with world leaders.

And to many of Trump’s allies inside and outside the White House, much of what has happened since remains an unqualified success despite the first-year president’s historically low approval ratings. TrumpWorld sees a deregulation-fueled spurt of economic growth that is driving stock market gains and low unemployment, quality conservative judicial appointments highlighted by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, progress toward greater border security and immigration control, battlefield victories against the Islamic State, and promises kept to social conservatives.

If Congress would get its act together, these allies say, this list of accomplishments would be longer and even more impressive. “The biggest failure of the last year has nothing to do with the president,” said a Republican operative aligned with Trump and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. “It is the failure of the media and Washington, including [Republican Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell and [Republican House Speaker] Paul Ryan, to understand why the president won and get on board with the Trump agenda that people voted for.”

A couple of issues loom on the horizon that temper the enthusiasm of even some true believers. The first is that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which Trump has always dismissed as an attempt to discredit his historic win, has produced its first indictments and is bearing down on the White House.

The second is that the elections that took place near the anniversary of Trump’s win may have foreshadowed Democratic gains in Congress next year. The White House has had difficulty getting legislation through Capitol Hill even with Republican majorities. It’s going to be more of a struggle with smaller majorities or Democrats controlling one or both houses.