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There is a saying: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

In 2016, first Republicans and then national voters were fooled badly by Donald Trump. He claimed superiority in moral clarity, honesty, dedication to conservative principles, policy knowledge and management skill. Next to him, he said, accomplished lawmakers were failures, serious conservative thinkers were uncommitted, and dignified opponents were low energy, weak and tired. (One can only imagine what he would have said of a candidate Ronald Reagan.)

Nobody knows the (political) system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it, he told voters, many of whom were rightly weary of arrogant and overreaching government. He promised Americans, We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with the winning.

So 60 million Americans some enthusiastically, others less so voted him into the White House. Then he began to show who Donald Trump really is.

He had promised to drain the swamp of Washington corruption, but he put his children and cronies in powerful government offices, while the Trump Organizations rakes in millions from taxpayers and special interests.

He had bragged of his honesty, but now he lies about even the most mundane of facts, such as the size of his inauguration crowd or his electoral victory.

He had declared himself to be a committed conservative, but he intends to add to the national debt, ignores the fiscal crises facing Social Security and Medicare, offers government subsidies and favors to businesses he likes and threatens businesses he dislikes, dismisses reports that Russia Americas top geopolitical foe for 70 years is trying to undermine the nations political institutions, discounts hard-won international agreements that have contributed to Americas strength and prosperity, and vows new expansions of presidential and federal power.

He had claimed great knowledge of public policy, but he was recently astonished to learn that health care policy is so complicated and he offers no serious guidance to lawmakers on improving health care or reforming taxes or government process.

He had touted his management skills, but his appointees include unqualifieds, incompetents and embarrassments, and his own announcements and decisions alternate between irrational impulsiveness and weak indecisiveness.

He had promised foreign and defense policies so strong that nobody, nobody is going to mess with us, but he kowtows to the autocratic ruler of Russia, while world leaders friends and foes alike dismiss him as a dimwitted blowhard. And so do a growing number of political leaders at home, Republicans and Democrats alike.

Now, this president who once bragged of his moral clarity tells us that there were some very fine people among the neo-Nazis, Klansmen and other white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville, Va. To be sure, he also chastised the KKK and neo-Nazi movements in remarks he read from a teleprompter. Still, there were some very fine people wearing swastikas and carrying torches. This from a guy who previously bragged that his celebrity lets him get away with groping women, and who repeatedly derided American war heroes and their families.

This is not winning. This is abhorrent. And were only seven months into his presidency. Imagine what lies ahead.

Deep down, most Republicans must know this is a disaster. Despite his claims of superiority during the campaign, its now clear he lacks even basic levels of morality, wisdom or understanding of governance let alone the levels necessary for a president.

Donald Trump fooled Republicans and other voters in 2016. The question now is whether they will let him continue to do so.

Some may, rationalizing that Democrats do and say bad things too. But they do it too is no justification for such failure. If Republicans cant maintain their partys basic dignity, then they have no authority to govern.

Other defenders might say, Theres nothing Trump can do to satisfy Democrats and the press. Perhaps its true that Republicans have to work twice as hard to get half as far, but thats hardly a reason to empower someone who works one-tenth as hard and expects 10 times the adulation.

Still other Republicans may profess, Hes better than having the Democrats in charge. But every new humiliation and every Republican capitulation to Trumps ignorance and arrogance increase the likelihood of future, enduring Democratic victory.

Besides, there are worse things than political losses. The worst is the loss of ones principles. If Republicans are willing to surrender those to Donald Trump, then what else will they do? As a wise man once asked, What benefits a person to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

The question now is whether responsible Republicans will stand up and declare that Trumps performance is unacceptable. Will they be loyal to their principles, or to him?

To borrow some words from the GOPs past, Republicans have reached a time for choosing. They need to choose well. No less than the nations future is at stake.

Thomas A. Firey is a Washington County native.

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Thomas A. Firey: Republicans' time for choosing - Herald-Mail Media

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press/File 2017

Senator Bob Corker declared that the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to in dealing with crises.

Donald Trump has frequently pledged to unite Americans, and over the past week he has seemingly fulfilled that promise. Indeed, in his response to the events in Charlottesville and his refusal to condemn Nazis, he waded so far into the sewer of moral barrenness that even Republicans were willing to join Democrats in condemning his comments.

While some Republicans, like Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, who is up for reelection in 2018, were willing to question Trumps stability, competence, and basic comprehension of American values, most Republicans reserved their words of denunciation for neo-Nazis and white supremacists and only vaguely chastised Trump.

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To be sure, its always good to see Republican politicians speak out against racism. But you dont get points for doing what youre supposed to do.

A true condemnation of racism, bigotry, and hate would look a lot different than tut-tutting about Nazis and white supremacists.

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It would have meant condemning Trump a year ago, when he suggested that a Mexican-American judge could not be impartial because of his ethnic heritage and taking away ones endorsement of Trump because of it.

The huge response to Saturdays rally should be seen as an important statement of public disgust toward vile groups and the hateful beliefs they espouse.

It would mean deploring efforts by state legislatures in North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, and countless other states to restrict the franchise of minority voters and passing changes to the Voting Rights Act that would further protect voting rights.

It would mean speaking out against the Trump administrations Muslim ban and its incessant attacks on undocumented immigrants as purveyors of national violence and crafting legislation in Congress to stop it.

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It would mean rejecting the nomination of Jeff Sessions as attorney general because of his history of racist, xenophobic, and homophobic statements. It would mean pushing back on his efforts to increase punishments for low-level drug users, which disproportionately affects minority populations.

It would mean rather than attacking Black Lives Matter and treating the police as somehow above criticism working with civil rights groups to protect minority communities from police brutality. It would mean passing common-sense gun control legislation that would make it easier for cops to do their jobs without worrying that every traffic stop could turn into a deadly encounter.

In short, there is a clear and unambiguous legislative and policy roadmap for enacting policies that tackle institutional racism and bigotry in American society.

But, of course, for this to happen it would mean that the modern Republican Party wouldnt be the modern Republican Party. The reality is that, for nearly five decades, the GOP has used coded racial messaging to scare white Americans and win countless elections. Trumps image of homicidal undocumented immigrants follows in the ugly footsteps of Willie Horton, welfare queens driving Cadillacs in American inner cities, and tough law-and-order rhetoric. The true difference with Trump is that, unlike previous Republican politicians, he didnt use dog whistles when making nakedly racist appeals.

Republicans might convince themselves that they are somehow different from Trump because they didnt call for a total Muslim ban or propose deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. But every Republican candidate for president in 2016 supported restricting Syrian Muslims from entering the country. They all backed tougher enforcement policies in regard to undocumented immigrants, and they were all happy to use both groups, as well as Black Lives Matter, as rhetorical punching bags.

Indeed, condemning bigotry and racism in America means recognizing that bigotry and racism in America exist in forms much larger and more insidious both implicitly and explicitly than just a few hundred losers marching in a white supremacist rally. It means recognizing that decades of Republican rhetoric on crime, immigration, terrorism, and the role of government perpetuate those racial divisions. In short, it means more than doing the absolute bare minimum. When GOP politicians are willing to do that, they should be praised. Until then, their words are meaningless platitudes.

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Enough talk: Republicans must walk the walk on systemic racism - The Boston Globe

Tax reform is the "political holy grail" for Republicans and therefore should get done, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told CNBC on Monday.

"Tax reform is across-the-board popular in the Republican Party," the Republican said in an interview with "Closing Bell."

"If they can't do this, they can't do anything. This is low-hanging fruit."

In an event on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin touted tax reform, with Mnuchin saying the Trump administration is "100 percent committed" to getting it done.

Republican leaders are expected to start working tax reform through Congress next month.

"Congress gets things done when there's a legal deadline or there's a political imperative or crisis," said Pawlenty, CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable.

"If they don't do it between now and the 2018 elections they're going to be in big trouble."

He said there needs to be at least a significant reduction in the corporate tax rate, as well as middle-income tax relief. The other details can be worked out, he said.

Pawlenty is also not too concerned about taxes being derailed by the drama surrounding President Donald Trump. The president has been widely criticized for blaming both white nationalists and counterprotesters for violence at a Virginia rally this month organized by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Trump "clearly has some challenges because of the distractions and some of the decrease in his popularity, but keep in mind this is equally important to Congress and they can pass this on their own, assuming they don't hit a tripwire of his, and he'll sign it," he said.

However, Jared Bernstein, former economic policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, said while Congress writes the law, the president needs to be actively engaged. For example, President Ronald Reagan played a critical role in organization tax reform in the 1980s, he told "Power Lunch."

"You need a president who's got more interest and credibility than Trump has on the issue," he said.

And right now, there are so many open questions about what the GOP tax bill may look like.

"It's a little remarkable at this point that they don't have a plan," he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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If Republicans can't do tax reform, they can't do anything: GOP ex-governor - CNBC

The Trump International Hotel inside the federally owned Old Post Office building in downtown D.C. has been mired in controversy even before opening its doors. (Claritza Jimenez,Osman Malik,Jonathan O'Connell/The Washington Post)

The Post reports this morning that more than two dozenRepublican Party committeeshave spent nearly half a million dollars holding campaign fundraisers at hotels and golf coursesowned by President Trump since he took office in January.Together with $793,000 that Republican committees paid to Trump companies in rent and legal fees, Trump-owned companies have raked in $1.3 million in 2017 from the presidents own party.

The Republican National Committee, congressional campaigns, state parties and the Republican Governors Association all paid Trump properties to host fundraisers, simultaneously using the Trump brand to fill campaign coffers and line the first familys pockets.

Its just the latest piece of mounting evidence that Trump and the companies in which he maintains a stake and that his family members still control are profiting off of his presidency,creating conflicts of interest never before seen in the Oval Office. Because weve never had a president with such wide-ranging business interests and complete unwillingness to avoid conflicts of interest, Trump is taking the country into uncharted waters and we are likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg of the ways in which he willprofit from his businesses by using his presidency as a marketing tool.

Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics and now a senior director at the Campaign Legal Center, told me in an interview that the new revelations are amazing and terrible. Although technically not covered by conflicts of interest laws that govern the conduct of other federal employees,Shaub said, the president should act as though he is. By refusing to conduct himself in accordance with these ethical norms, Trump is signaling that hes above them actions that undermine the publics commitment to the democratic values that these norms represent.

Now we learn that, by renting out Trump properties for its own high-priced fundraisers, the Republican Party is dancing on the grave of those norms, as it raises campaign funds while helping the Trump family profit.

As the top government ethics chief (a position he resigned last month), Shaub had called on Trump to divest from his many business holdings before he assumed office in January. Trump refused to relinquish his financial stake in his companies, although he left the day-to-day operations of his companies in the hands of his sons Eric and Donald Jr.

Under Trumps presidency, the lavish, pricey Trump International Hotel has become a hub of activity for West Wing insiders and outsiders seeking to gain access to the Trump administration, an arrangement that has proved lucrative for the first family. As The Post reported this month, Trump family businesses earned nearly $2 million in profits from the hotel alone in just four months this year.

Trump could have avoided the appearance of a conflict even absent divestment in his holdings, Shaub pointed out, if he haddirected Republicans to refrain from using Trump-branded properties for such political activities. Instead, he seems to be tacitlyencouraging it, Shaub notes, creating the appearance that he is determined to make as much money as he can off this presidency.

And the Republican Party appears to be taking notice it looks to be an active participant as the president leverages his power to increase his familys company profits. In June, the Republican National Committeeused Trumps Washington hotelfor a fundraiser, and last month paidthe hotel $122,000 for use of the venue, according to The Posts analysis of campaign finance records. Attendees paid $35,000 each to attend the fundraiser, which raised $10 million for the RNC and Trumps reelection committee thus enriching both the campaign coffers and the Trump hotel.

The Republican party committees and politicians hosting fundraisers at Trump-branded properties are complicit in lining his pockets to curry favor with him or to promote his brand, said Shaub. All of this is just monetizing the presidency at our expense, frankly. By attaching his name and cachet to staying at, golfing at or hosting a large event at a Trump-branded property, Trump is using the office to enrich himself and his family, and, seemingly, to encourage Republican political committees to help do the same.

Shaub pointed out that, by marketing and profiting from his own properties while in office, Trump, along with Republican officials and leaders, is modeling the worst behavior for government employees, byundermining the ethics norms that distinguish a democracy from a kleptocracy. And Republican officials and leaders are helping him do it.

The real recourse from Trumps shredding of these norms has to come from the branches of government that act as a check on the executive. But ones confidence in those branches is diminished by their apparent lack of commitment to upholding the norms themselves. After all, we have now learned that Republican officeholders and party officials apparently have no compunction about holding fundraisers at Trump properties. With Trumps allies in his party and in government aiding and abetting him, he looks poised to continue to exploitthe office of the leader of the free world for profit and how successful he will be in this regard is anyones guess.

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Trump and Republicans break impressive new ground in the erosion of our norms - Washington Post

President Trump likes to trumpet his "tremendous" support and strong base, but polls show that his approval rating is declining, even among key demographics that voted for him in 2016. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump won the presidency on the strength of 63 million votes across the United States. More specifically, he won it on the strength of 78,000 votes in three states. His narrow wins in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin 0.06 percent of all the votes cast gave him the electoral college majority he needed to be inaugurated, despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes overall.

On Sunday, NBC News released new polling conducted by Marist. As is the case in most other places in the country, Trumps approval rating in those states has sagged, with only about a third of adults approving of his job performance. Nearly 4 in 10 adults in each state view him with strong disapproval.

What jumped out at me in these poll results, though, was another set of numbers. In each state, more than 6 in 10 adults say that Trumps conduct as president leaves them embarrassed, while only about a quarter say that Trump makes them proud.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans and those who voted for Trump are more likely to say that theyre proud than embarrassed.

But notice an interesting detail on that graph: About 1 in 5 Trump voters and 3 in 10 Republicans agree with the majority that his conduct has been embarrassing.

Even more interesting is that white working-class respondents the group thats often given credit (or, in some quarters, blame) for Trumps victory is more likely to say that they are embarrassed than proud.

In that group, Trumps overall approval rating is underwater in both Michigan and Wisconsin; in Pennsylvania, his approval rating with whites without college degrees is only twopoints higher than his disapproval.

The motivating issue for those voters was ostensibly concern over the economy. On economic issues, Trump fares decently, with more people in each state* generally saying that Trumps making the economy stronger than say hes making it weaker.

Notice, though, that the opinions of white working-class residents of each state align more with the overall views of Trump than with his base of support. That, of course, is because a lot of the white working-class voters in these three states are Democrats who, in elections past, helped keep the states blue. But Trumps argument has been that this is the core of his base of support. At this point, it doesnt look like it.

On manufacturing, we see the same split between the population and Trumps base: General skepticism that Trump is succeeding on manufacturing, with working-class whites in each state leaning more toward the overall opinion.

When we look at the proud-versus-embarrassed question this way, the split is clear.

Marist asked another question thats revelatory. Of Trump voters, the pollster asked why they supported him, because they liked Trump or because they disliked Clinton? At least 30 percent in each state said it was because they didnt like Clinton.

Now, this may be after-the-fact rationalization, an excuse offered for supporting a candidate whom they now find embarrassing. But given that Trump won Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by 0.22, 0.72 and 0.76 percentage points, respectively, the idea that 2 in 10 now say theyre embarrassed by him and 3 in 10 of his supporters in each state now say that they only did it because they hated Clinton? Thats not a recipe for reelection.

* Weve made Michigans columns in the graphs a vibrant shade of scarlet.

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In the states that gave Trump the presidency, 3 in 10 Republicans are embarrassed by him - Washington Post