[WaPo] ‘He just picks up’: Trump and the lawmakers he loves to talk to on the phone

more norm-breaking from the Norm-Breaker-in-Chief:

The chatterbox in chief has eschewed the traditional way that presidents communicate with members of Congress, calling lawmakers at all hours of the day without warning and sometimes with no real agenda. Congressional Republicans reciprocate in kind, increasingly dialing up the president directly to gauge his thinking after coming to terms with the fact that ultimately, no one speaks for Trump but Trump himself.

“I never called President Bush or President Obama,” said Barrasso, who has served in the Senate since 2007. “I just feel comfort in calling President Trump. He calls me regularly to talk about issues. He’s always helpful for both of us.”

Longtime senators who have served through multiple administrations say they have never seen a president so easily accessible to lawmakers. The calls are part of what occupies the wide swaths of “executive time” on Trump’s schedule — an unstructured stretch of the day he uses to call allies and hold meetings that are otherwise not publicly announced.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — whom Trump has called while the Kentucky Republican was attending a Nationals baseball game — is among the most frequent of the president’s phone partners. But Trump also speaks often with Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), according to people familiar with the conversations.

Rep. Mark Meadows (N.C.), who is chairman of the House Republicans’ conservative faction and was once considered for White House chief of staff, also chats several times per week with Trump, mostly in impromptu calls.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said one GOP senator who occasionally calls Trump, chuckling.

“It’s a different world,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican who is not one of Trump’s regular phone partners but encourages senators to talk to the president directly.

Congressional Republicans patch through to Trump multiple ways.

One common route is through Madeleine Westerhout, the White House’s director of Oval Office operations and a close aide to Trump who once served as the “greeter girl” for visitors at Trump Tower during the presidential transition. Senators call her directly, and although Trump has given some Republican lawmakers his phone number, he tells most of them “just to call Madeleine.” ​

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...4eea99d5e24_story.html?utm_term=.7af78aa41db1

more at the link