They are astute observers of the executive branch ... and they know that the president is weakened.

The executive branch maneuvered this result deftly.

In the executive branch, winning by a whisker is as good as winning in a landslide, but not so in the Senate.

It seems perfectly reasonable for the president to want members of the executive branch to be loyal to him and to follow his directions rather than those of the bureaucracies they lead. They will leave their positions when the president leaves. Making a lifetime appointment of a friend to the Supreme Court is a whole different matter.

Serving in the executive branch is very different than sounding off from an academic perch.

build a more muscular executive branch.