Republicans don’t want to say this publicly, but privately they do: President Trump’s personal political obsessions are hurting his presidency, harming the chances for further policy gains the rest of this year, and putting control of the House and Senate in jeopardy.

That’s the backdrop to the GOP revolt last week in Congress on war powers and funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Trump’s unrelated priorities are handing Democrats gift after gift and forcing Republicans to take difficult votes that could cost them in November. His desire for political revenge is also alienating members of Congress he will need this year.

The trigger for the Senate revolt Thursday was Mr. Trump’s insistence on his $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund.” This is allegedly part of his settlement, if you want to call it that, with the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. It’s an agreement between Mr. Trump and the Justice Department which reports to him — he is on both sides of the deal — to pay Jan. 6 riot participants and others Mr. Trump claims were unjustly targeted by Democratic officials.

Democrats planned to offer amendments to the DHS funding bill that would put Republicans on record for supporting a taxpayer payout to convicted rioters and Mr. Trump’s friends and allies. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, hardly a GOP faint heart, said someone had called it a “galactic blunder,” and “that’s probably true.” Mr. Trump has already pardoned the rioters but now he wants the rest of us to pay them.

GOP leaders pulled the entire funding legislation when it appeared they might lose the weaponization vote and went home on recess. But Democrats will be back again with the same amendments if the bill returns with the same payout.

Then there’s Mr. Trump’s East Wing ballroom fixation, for which he wants $220 million from Congress. He has a point about hardened security for the new White House area, but he had said when he first tore down the old East Wing that it would require no public money.

The parliamentarian struck the ballroom funding from the DHS bill under budget reconciliation rules, so now the GOP will need 60 votes (not 51) to pass ballroom funding. Mr. Trump naturally berated GOP Senators for not firing the parliamentarian.

Senate GOP frustration is also boiling after Mr. Trump’s campaign against two Senators running for re-election. First he helped defeat Lousiana’s Bill Cassidy in a primary, and last week he endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn. Mr. Trump’s motives in both cases were largely personal — he wanted revenge against Mr. Cassidy for thinking his behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, was an impeachable offense, and Mr. Cornyn didn’t endorse him for President with enough alacrity to suit his loyalty test.

In both cases, he’ll get slavish replacements — that is, if Mr. Paxton wins the primary (Editor’s note: Paxton won the runoff election Tuesday) and then doesn’t lose in November. But meantime there are governing consequences for alienating allies. Mr. Cassidy provided the swing vote that allowed the Democrats’ war powers resolution to advance, and he was a likely no on ballroom funding, too. Mr. Cornyn is such a class act that he won’t take gratuitous votes that hurt his party, but he’ll have no incentive to bow to Mr. Trump’s demands, either.

By the way, GOP House leaders pulled a war powers vote Thursday when it appeared Mr. Trump would lose that, too. That will also come back again. Mr. Trump can always veto the resolution, but the erosion of support for the war is a sign of overall eroding political support.

Mr. Trump’s politics has always been largely personal, but in his second term it has become self-indulgent even by his standards. The Trump name on everything, the Beltway “arch” and other monuments to French-like grandeur. And most of all the politics of retribution and lawfare as he seeks to ruin anyone he thinks has wronged him. He seems incapable of rising above, even as voters care much more about the economy and prices and his job approval falls to new lows.

Mr. Trump’s presidency will be all but over — except for impeachment 3.0 — if the GOP loses control of Congress in November. If he wants to accomplish more legislatively, he has only a few months to do it. Does he want his remaining legacy to be a ballroom, an Arc de Trump, and payoffs for his friends from a fund that Republicans would denounce if a Democratic President tried it?

Mr. Trump needs a second-year reset, or he is headed toward a second-term failure.

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ONLINE: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-has-lost-the-governing-plot-4879dd64?mod=editorials_article_pos2