Attempting to advise the president

Sitting inside the White House, Mitch McConnell gave Donald Trump some straightforward advice: Stop attacking senators — including Mitt Romney — who likely will soon judge your fate in an impeachment trial.

  Politico

Even if he takes that advice, he won't be able to stick to it.

The one-on-one meeting last week between the Senate majority leader and the president covered several weighty issues including Syria, according to two people familiar with the conversation. But like everything these days when it comes to Trump, impeachment was high on the president’s mind.

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Though much of the pair's contact is concealed even from aides, people familiar with the conversations say they speak all the time — and there’s been an uptick in recent weeks as the impeachment threat grows more serious.

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[Trump has] been courting his congressional allies with golf, a World Series game and frequent phone calls — all to develop an echo chamber of support from his allies in Congress.

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The president is largely laying off senators with difficult calculations to make in the coming months, declining to lobby the likes of GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Marco Rubio of Florida, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Johnny Isakson of Georgia. And he’s largely laying off Romney after suggesting he should be impeached and calling him a “pompous 'ass.'”

That's because he hasn't heard anything more out of Romney.

White House officials are leaning on Trump’s impromptu meetings at the White House and his direct calls to Republican senators including Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and John Kennedy of Louisiana. It’s a bet the cult of Trump’s personality and the power of his prolific Twitter feed will be enough to keep members within the fold, even as House Democrats quickly gather evidence as part of the impeachment proceedings.

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That’s not to say the president has fully gone hands-off. Last Thursday he hosted 10 Republicans in the Situation Room for a meeting on Middle East policy, including several senators who had called his conversation with the Ukrainian president about Joe Biden inappropriate. After the meeting, they gathered in the ornate Roosevelt Room, where Trump vented about impeachment.

“He said he thought the process was unfair and he hadn’t done anything wrong. And he wanted us to know that,” said an attendee, who said Trump neither put pressure on his mild critics nor received any criticism himself.

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Shortly after that meeting, Graham released a resolution attacking the House impeachment inquiry. Eventually, the resolution attracted the support of 50 GOP senators, earning an attaboy from Trump on Twitter and amounting to a show of defense for the president around the process, if not the substance, of impeachment proceedings.

The process and smearing witnesses is all they've got.