Lindsey Graham warns GOP against thwarting Trump's border emergency. But is anyone still scared of Trump?

On Monday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned his fellow congressional Republicans not to thwart President Trump if he declares a national emergency to build his border wall using funds earmarked by Congress for other uses. "To every Republican, if you don't stand behind this president, we're not going to stand behind you, when it comes to the wall," he said in a speech in Greenville, South Carolina. "This is the defining moment of his presidency. It's not just about a wall, it's about him being treated different than every other president." The wall could spark a "war within the Republican Party," Graham added. "This is about us as a party."

Republicans have privately warned Trump against declaring a national emergency, and they are doing so publicly, too. In 2016, Trump told Bob Woodward that "real power is — I don't even want to use the word — fear." And Trump has used fear as a governing tactic like no president since Richard Nixon, Michael Tackett and Maggie Haberman write at The New York Times. "But as his presidency enters its third year, a less convenient truth is emerging: Few outside the Republican Party are afraid of him, and they may be less intimidated after the disastrous government shutdown."

World leaders have become resigned to Trump's threats, noticing that he rarely follows through, the Times reports, citing diplomats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) clearly isn't cowed by Trump, and Republicans are beginning to buck him, especially on foreign policy. Other presidents have used fear to get what they want, but they mixed it with other strategies, like building relationships and trying to reach win-win deals, Tackett and Haberman write. "Even Nixon later acknowledged that he did not really believe fear was a successful prime motivator."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Nixon said that, but he didn't believe it and he didn't practice it," presidential historian Michael Beschloss tells the Times. Trump? "It's almost as if he only has one tool in his toolbox."