What must Trump do to cross Republicans?

Most times a bad policy is just that — a bad policy. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to assign broad moral categorizations of good and evil. President Donald Trump's decision to deliberately separate immigrant children from their parents is one of those instances: It is evil, it is cruel and it is ahistorical. It is unbecoming of any nation claiming it adheres to even the most rudimentary human rights, much less the United States, a nation of immigrants that traditionally has viewed itself as a beacon of human rights.

Read more: Trump's migrant family separations reversal too little, too late

So it is of course good news that Trump walked back the family separation policy he himself proudly instituted as part of his "zero tolerance" crackdown on immigrants. As is custom, his retreat was awash in his trademark sea of lies and mischaracterizations. It was the same sea of lies and mischaracterizations that he used when instituting his policy. In his signature style he assigned blame to Democrats, Congress and previous administrations before signing — in a brazen ceremony flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — an executive order to end an inhumane practice he himself had launched.

Serial political arsonist

While the order ostensibly ends the Trump government's practice of ripping immigrant children from their parents, it does nothing to reunite the more than 2,000 children already taken from parents. It also does not change an existing Supreme Court ruling that stipulates immigrant children cannot be detained for more than 20 days. And since the Trump government continues its "zero tolerance policy" to prosecute all illegal border crossings, this means that children could still be separated from their parents after having been detained with their parents for 20 days.

Trump is a serial political arsonist who repeatedly sets fires he then boasts about extinguishing. That in itself is nothing new. It is simply part of the president's established playbook that was used most recently on North Korea, where after taking office Trump ratcheted up the pressure to the brink of war only to then stage a historic summit that allowed him to calm down the crisis he had created and expect public kudos for this magnanimous act.        

No adults left in the room

What is more significant about this latest episode is that when push comes to shove, no one in this administration and only a few of the Republicans who control Congress are prepared to stand up to Trump. To be sure, that was already the case throughout his tenure — with the exception of US policy towards Russia. But Trump's policy of separating children from their parents served as a litmus test for conservatives who traditionally viewed themselves as the defenders of family unity from an alleged onslaught of liberal attacks on family values.

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The fact that no one in this administration pushed back against separating children from their parents shows that Trump has now succeeded in his efforts to surround himself with feckless sycophants. Remember the adage about the "adults in the room" keeping watch over the president? If they ever were there in the first place, they have long left the building by now.        

Pretty much the same moral apathy characterized the response of Republicans in Congress and Trump supporters across the country. There was no huge outcry from the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan about the fact that a Republican government instituted a policy that mandates taking children away from their parents.

Instead, many defended the policy while others obfuscated or tried to rationalize the issue for themselves. That the president eventually walked back his despicable policy was likely due to the repeated pleas by his wife, Melania, and daughter Ivanka, not pressure from Republicans. Together, the episode was just the latest sign that the GOP is now fully the party of Trump.

That does not bode well for the future of the country. If taking away children from their parents is not enough for Republicans to break with a ruthless president who so clearly lacks any moral compass, what is? It's a troubling prospect to consider.