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A month after publicly denouncing a health care bill that the president was desperate to pass, Senator Dean Heller sat uncomfortably alongside President Donald Trump in front of rolling cameras. Holding the floor, Trump did not disappoint, addressing the awkwardness head onwith a veil of humor so thin it stood no chance ofobscuring anyone's view of the true threat at its heart.

Look, he wants to remain a senator doesnt he? Trump said with a smirk.

Heller rocked his head back and initially burst into a laugh. But, with a subtle yet significant hand on hisarm, Trump let him know that the warning was not to be taken lightly.

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And I think the people of your state, which I know very well, I think the people are going to appreciate what you hopefully will do, the Republican president added.

And with that, the uneasiness of being a Republican in the era of the most unpredictable and self-serving president in modern history was laid bare in a few seconds of rapidly unfolding facial expressions.Just weeks after that exchange, Heller, the only Republican senator up for re-election in 2018 in a state carried by Democrat Hillary Clinton, learned his re-election hopes had become yet more perilouswith the emergence of a primary challenger accusing him of obstructing the president's agenda.

Having unexpectedly gained control of the White House and both Houses of Congress, this should have been a time for Republican rejoicing on Capitol Hill, after having been blessed with the opportunity to advance alegislative agenda crafted through eight long years of frustration during Democrat Barack Obama's presidency. Instead, just seven months in, Congress and the White House are locked in aprivate as well as an increasingly public conflict that has the potential to both scupper their hopes in the 2018 midterms and shift the party yet further to the fringe right.

In Trump, Republicans have come up against a president who refuses to tolerate any semblance of opposition, even for the greater good of the party. Having leeway to vote against the president on certain issues in order to preserve voter support back home has been common under past administrations. According to Larry Sabato, director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, there's good reason for that.

Its practical, Sabato told Newsweek last week. Its the obvious thing to do. Other presidents have had good sense, He doesnt have good sense, he doesnt understand politics.

Last week, Trump delivered his most stinging rebuke yet to a Republican who dared to cross him. In a sharply delivered tweet, he described Senator Jeff Flake as toxic and, to the dismay of the Republican establishment, threw his support behind the Arizona senator's primary opponent.

In Nevada, too, Trump's influence is already being felt. Two weeks ago, Las Vegas resident Danny Tarkanianthe son of a famed University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball coach and a five-time defeated candidate for political officeentered the fray, pitching himself as someone who would bring the kind of loyalty to the president that Heller has lacked.

Ive gotten so many calls, emails, texts encouraging me to run against Dean Heller, he told Newsweek on the day of his announcement. They all were telling me, 'Hey, were never going to get President Trumps "America First"policies passed unless we get senators in office who are going to support the presidents policies.'

Backing up those comments, Tarkanian last week launched the website NeverHeller.com, which is composed solely of quotes and other purported evidence that the Nevada senator was never Trump.

While a fillip for Trump, Tarkanian's entry into the race is also a boost for Democratscurrently represented in the race by U.S. Representative Jacky Rosen, who defeated Tarkanian in winning her House seat in 2016. As they aim to grab a seat that is surely a must-win if they are to have any hope of taking back the Senate andobstructing Trump's agenda, Democrats are eager to capitalize on the Republican infighting.

Its going to make this incredibly tough for Heller, Stewart Boss, communications director for the Nevada State Democratic Party, told Newsweek last week. Hes going to have to thread this needle for the next year of trying to appease a Trump base in Nevada that doesnt trust him while hes definitely going to face a tough general election.

President Donald Trump gestures toward Senator Dean Heller (R-NeV.) while delivering remarks on health care and Republicans' inability thus far to replace or repeal the Affordable Care Act, during a lunch with members of Congress in the State Dining Room of the White House on July 19, in Washington, D.C. Michael Reynolds - Pool/Getty Images

The signs are that Heller and Tarkanian could be set for a near repeat of last weeks special election in Alabama, in which the three leading Republican candidates to take now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions's old Senate seat were fighting in an attempt toportray themselves as the most pro-Trump.

In Nevada, though, that would be a perilous strategy. The state is trending blue, and in 2016 not only voted for Clinton but returnedDemocrats to majority control of both houses of the state legislature. In the first half of 2017, Trump has an approval rating of 44 percent in Nevada, which, while higher than he has recorded nationally, is not exactly something to trumpet. Heller encountered some of his states most vicious opposition to Trump first-hand, when a note threatening to kill the senator over his health care vote was taped to the door of his Las Vegas office.

Toward the end of June, Heller held a press conference with Nevada GovernorBrian Sandoval during which he made it clear he would not support the GOP health care bill. A month later, though, following Trumps very public threat and attack ads run against him by a pro-Trump group, he voted in favor of Republicans much-maligned skinny repeal of Obamacare, which was eventually defeated by a single vote.

You had to take a positon on that, you just had to, Sabato said. Do your best to argue for it and people might at least respect you a little. When you voted in prior times to abandon Obamacare and replace it and then you cant decide what you want to do and then Trump kind of embarrasses you and sure enough you vote with him. I just think he looked like a human piece of marshmallow.

Indeed, Hellers flip-flopping is now set to be a focal point of the campaign against himfrom both the right and the left.

A big emphasis on our part is going to be pointing people back to not what he says but what he does and how he votes, Boss said of the Democratic campaign against Heller, which not coincidentally is probably going to be Danny Tarkanians message, too.

Were Trump to makethe same direct intervention in the Nevada election as he has in Arizona against Flake,it would further fracture the relationship between the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Amid the dramatic failure of the health care effort, Trump lashed outnot only at Heller and Flake, but by publicly slamming McConnell.

Such a rift between the president and the man charged with rallying support in the Senate presents an unhelpful roadblock to hopes of advancing both a Republican and a Trump agenda. More trouble could yet await the president. Following his much-criticized comments about violence at a white nationalist rally earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia, and with his approval ratings at historic lows, Republicans are feeling emboldened to criticize Trump in a manner they have shied away from since he entered the White House.

And yet any obituaries of the Trump presidency may have to wait a while.Through a pure dose of election mechanics, rather thanany inspired political maneuvering, Trump has an avenue to actually come out of the 2018 midterms in a stronger position.

Thanks to Democrats' success in 2006 and 2012, the 2018 map will see them defending 25 seats, compared to the Republicans eight. Whats more, 10 of the Democrats up for re-election are in states carried by Trump in 2016;five are in states he won by landslides.

Let's suppose Republicans add net two or three seats," said Sabato,"then they're set in the Senate, they can lose Heller, loseFlake add net two or three seats, they're in a better position and Trump will have sent a message to other Republicans, which is, 'If you cross me, I'll make sure you lose.

Tarkanian, for one,is determined to make that message ring true and ensure that 2018 ends with the battle between the White House and Congress tilted in Trump's favor.

"I believe President Trumps 'America First' policiesare a positive and theyre working," Tarkanian said, "Hes done it without the help of the Senate or Congress. Just think how good we would be right now if we could get more of his policies past the House and Senate."

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