Trump, with 2 tweets, helps push GOP reversal on ethics

In a city bound by tradition, every president taps a legislative affairs director to work with Congress. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears ready to use a legislative whip like none other: Twitter.

On the opening day of Congress, Trump demonstrated the power of his 18.5-million Twitter followers and the clout of his populist credentials. With just a couple of tweets, the president-elect helped achieve what GOP leaders could not the night before, successfully pressuring House Republicans to reverse course on a plan to essentially scuttle an independent congressional ethics board.

The move, only hours before Congress was sworn in, likely offered an early preview of how Trump intends to use his tech-savvy bully pulpit to persuade lawmakers who share his party affiliation but not all of his policy priorities. If the Jan. 3 tactic is an example, the days of private back-channel negotiations and behind-the-scenes arm-twisting may now be giving way to a new era of lobbying by social media shaming.

"Virtually everything he does is a different style than Washington is used to," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said of Trump's lobbying style. "He's going to be very public, very aggressive."

By Trump's standards, the tweets that piled pressure on lawmakers were relatively mild.

After House Republicans voted in a closed-door session on Monday evening - a federal holiday - to undercut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, government watchdogs and Democratic lawmakers railed against the move and people began calling their representatives. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy had opposed the changes, fearing exactly the kind of backlash that emerged.

Then Trump weighed in with two Twitter...