GOP lawmakers are ignoring Trump because the public no longer cares what he thinks: columnist

Republican lawmakers are using the fallout from Donald Trump's disastrous shutdown of the federal government for 35-days to increasingly criticize the president in public when they are not busy ignoring him.

According to conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin, Trump was not only unable rally support for his border wall shutdown, the public increasingly turned against him or ignored him -- allowing lawmakers in his own party to do the same.

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her House Democratic caucus have perfected the art of ignoring President Trump’s threats, non-facts and efforts to sway the electorate," Rubin wrote, adding, "It’s fair to say the only hope for the GOP and the country is to ignore Trump entirely and govern as the first branch of government."

Citing a New York Times report stating, "Republicans are not prepared to adopt Trump’s lies and misconceptions of the world, nor listen to advisers such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who insist on perpetuating them. They’ll stick with the facts," Rubin wrote, " In short, they are ignoring Trump’s lead, in fact pulling against him in ways that are striking for members of the incumbent president’s party."

"On the domestic front, lawmakers would do well to adopt a similar approach -- ignore Trump," Rubin advised. " The days of asking Trump permission before deciding and voting on a plan must stop unless Republicans are prepared for politically devastating shutdown 2.0."

According to the conservative columnist, now is the time to call Trump's bluff and expose him as a paper tiger.

"In sum, ignore the president on foreign and domestic policy, find areas of common agreement across the aisle and then put it on Trump’s desk. He’ll find a way to spin it as his own idea anyway," she wrote. "You see, it seems not even the president has the nerve to set off a second shutdown."

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