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August 4, 2017 WashingtonAmericas senators scattered to the winds for their summer recess on Thursday, leaving behind a big unfinished agenda and a peeved president.

The chief executive has lambasted lawmakers for failing to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, for theirinvestigations into Russia and his campaign,for their arcane voting rules, and for passing sanctions legislation against Russia.

He took a parting shot in a tweet Thursday morning, saying You can thank Congress for a US-Russia relationship that is at an all-time & very dangerous low.

President Trump may think his problem is with members of Congress and the way they run things. In one sense, the decisions and behaviors of individuals in Washington not least, himself account for his threadbare legislative accomplishments, despite Republican control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

But in the broadest sense, the resistance he's encounteringis due toAmericas system of governance. The story of his early presidency might easily be called Donald Trump meets the Founding Fathers, as a beginner politician runs up againstthe checks and balances that are designed to prevent tyranny and forge consensus.

Trump and his team aresurprised at the intransigence and resistance theyre meeting, when in fact, every other president has met them, says Don Ritchie, former Senate historian. This outsider White House didnt anticipate these things because they hadnt experienced these things, as former governors or legislators, like other presidents and senior White House officials.

During the honeymoon phase of a new administration, presidents can make significant headway. Barack Obama and George W. Bush scored some major legislative wins,when their parties, too, controlled both the House and Senate.

By the first August recess, a Democratic Congress had passed President Obamas big economic stimulus package, confirmed a Supreme Court justice, and was deep into the policy weeds of health care, which would become law early the next year. In his first year, President Bush got a $1.35 trillion tax cut andCongress passed landmark education reform with bipartisan support.

But Trump's marriage with the GOP has been rocky from the start.

He has been able to appoint a Supreme Court justice a biggie and roll back 14 Obama-era regulations, which Republicans say has helped to fuel the stock market to a record high. Still repeal-and-replace failed, the presidents budget is being strongly resisted by his own party, the border wall is a disputed budget line, tax reform is a set of talking points, and Democrats have panned his infrastructure plan.

Its not uncommon for presidents to meet resistance in Congress even when their party is in control. Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter all faced pushback, even though they had Democratic majorities.

Party members rebelled against FDRs attempt to pack the Supreme Court. They spurned Truman on his domestic agenda, though they agreed with him on key foreign policy issues. President Carter was too conservative for many Democrats witness Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedys decision to challenge him in the 1980 primary.

The common notion is that its presidents versus the opposition party in Congress, but its really presidents versus Congress as an institution, says Mr. Ritchie, the former Senate historian, recalling President Kennedys observation that he didnt realize how powerful Congress was until he was no longer just one of its 535members.

Trump saw that in a very tangible way when Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona became the unexpectedthird Republican to vote down, and thus kill, the Republican effort to pass a skinny repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the wee hours of July 28. Senator McCain also strongly supported punishing sanctions against Russia for attempting to influence US elections last year and for its military actions overseas as did most members of Congress.

We are an important check on the powers of the executive, Senator McCain said in aspeech before the full Senate earlierlast week. Whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the presidents subordinates, we are his equal, the senator emphasized, as he urged a return to the regular order of hearings and the painstaking business of consensus-building between the parties.

That flexing of congressional muscle by Republicans even against their own president was on display again this week as two Senate bipartisan bills were introduced to protect against a possible firing of independent counsel Robert Mueller by the president. Trump calls the investigation by the counsel into possible collusion between members of his campaign and Russia a witch hunt.

Firing the independent counsel would create a constitutional crisis by undermining the rule of law, lawmakers of both parties say.

Republicans and Democrats have circled the wagons around Mr. Mueller and around the embattled attorney general, former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) of Alabama. Senator Sessions has been one of the presidents most loyal supporters, now scorned by Trump for having recused himself from the Russia investigation.

Early on in his administration, Trump complained bitterly about the judicial branch. He chastised judges and lower-court rulings that went against his immigration travel ban, though he exulted when the Supreme Court partially upheld the ban in June.

As Ritchie points out, while just about everything in this young presidency is unprecedented, the pushback from the legislative and judicial branches is not.

I cant name a single president who has not been frustrated by the courts at some time, he says, pointing out that it is usually only after a crisis the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, 9/11 that the legislative, judicial, and executive branches all come together.

While the resistancefrom the other parts of government might frustrate the president, many Americans have a newfound appreciation for it.

Thank God we have three branches of government, said Stephen Benjamin, the Democratic mayor of Columbia, S.C., at a Monitor breakfast on Wednesday. Mr. Benjamin was part of a delegation from the nonpartisan US Conference of Mayors, which visited Washington this week to meet with legislators about the presidents proposed budget cuts, among other things.

Its great to have strong leadership and outspoken leadership in the White House, said John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Ariz., in an interview after the breakfast. But he also hearkened back approvingly to McCains speech of last week.

Senator McCain gave us a great civics lesson that the Senate and the Congress is not subservient to the president. They are the presidents equal.

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Donald Trump, meet the Founding Fathers - Christian Science Monitor