Unlike U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, whom Trump refers to on Twitter as liddle, or U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump calls Little Marco, the president most likely calls 82-year-old Inhofe by his name with no belittling nicknames.
How did the Oklahoma senator get so lucky?
According to NewsOK, Inhofe has emerged as a consistent defender of the president on Capitol Hill. The newspaper further reported that, according to FiveThirtyEight, Inhofe has voted in line with Trump 94.2 percent of the time.
Hes getting things done, Inhofe told a reporter from The Oklahoman in early November. Its kind of hard to really criticize him.
Some, including members of Oklahomas Congressional Delegation, might beg to differ. As the NewsOK article points out, U.S. Sen. James Lankford has disagreed on Trumps bellicose speaking style, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole has described Trump as an opinion flip-flopper, U.S. Rep. Steve Russell butted heads with Trump over refugees and U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas has criticized the president for not working with Congress.
Inhofe, unlike other Oklahoma federal leaders, has no beef with Trump. Perhaps more importantly, Trump has no beef with Inhofe.
In fact, the president signed a bill into law sponsored by Inhofe. The Oval Office bill signing symbolized more than just passage of a bill for the longtime U.S. senator.
This is in somewhat poor taste, but I made a commitment when Obama was elected that I would not go to the White House as long as he was there, Inhofe said. I was assuming that would be four years, and it ended up being eight years. But then, as luck would have it, when Trump came in, the first bill he signed was my bill.
A NewsOK factcheck revealed it was the third bill, but lets not tell Inhofe. Lets also keep quiet on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) privatization stance Trump has taken; it would only hurt pro-FAA Inhofe. No one wants to see the budding Trump and Inhofe political bromance go south. After all, Inhofe is having so much fun visiting the White House again.