With President Donald Trump’s approval ratings sagging and Republicans preparing for a difficult midterm election, some members of his party are turning to a familiar escape hatch. They are blaming his advisers for presidential decisions they do not want to defend.

It is a convenient maneuver. By accusing aides of supplying bad advice, a Republican can admit that Trump’s record on an issue is unpopular while avoiding a direct break with Trump and the voters who remain loyal to him.

Recent examples make the pattern plain. Sen. Thom Tillis told MS NOW that Trump had received bad advice on the affordability crisis, while Florida Rep. María Elvira Salazar aimed a September ad at Trump and said, “some of your advisers are giving you bad advice” on immigration enforcement.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reached for the same formula in June as he criticized a potential deal with Iran. “I think the president, unfortunately, is receiving bad advice,” he said.

The tactic is hardly new in American politics. In 2009, Democratic Rep. John Conyers said Barack Obama was getting “bad advice from … clowns” on Afghanistan, offering another example of lawmakers directing criticism toward presidential advisers instead of the president.

Trump’s first term generated its own versions of the argument. Rep. Thomas Massie blamed bad advice during the attempted Affordable Care Act repeal, and Rep. Mark Meadows did the same when discussing funding for a border wall.

The approach can also help an ally preserve a positive relationship while trying to pull a president toward that ally’s preferred recommendation. In 2006, Republican Rep. Chris Shays used it to press George W. Bush to change his Iraq policy.

“When people keep giving you bad advice, you need to get other people to give you good advice,” Shays said. The message was blunt but carefully aimed.

The problem for today’s Republicans is that this excuse clashes with the political identity Trump has cultivated for a decade. At the 2016 convention, he declared, “I alone can fix it,” and he has repeatedly presented himself as possessing unmatched knowledge.

He has claimed to know more about ISIS than generals, more about the economy than the Federal Reserve, and more about courts than “any human being on Earth.” His second term administration is also filled with Cabinet officials who lavish him with praise.

Trump has rejected warnings that cut against his judgments. After the head of Goldman Sachs said sweeping tariffs would increase costs last year, Trump wrote that the bank had made “a bad prediction” about the market and tariffs and was “wrong, just like they are wrong about so much else.”

In February, reports said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs had warned Trump about the risks of a military strike on Iran. Trump disputed the account, said the general believed the war would be “easily won,” and then stated the central fact himself: “I am the one that makes the decision.”

People around Trump increasingly appear to recognize that arrangement. Axios reported, citing unnamed sources, that top White House aides and elected Republicans no longer even try to change his mind.

“Why bother?” a longtime adviser and admirer told the publication. “He’s the boss.”

Nor does the adviser excuse reliably shield Republicans from Trump’s anger. After Salazar’s ad aired, Trump first said he merely disagreed with her, and she described their conversation as “courteous.”

A week later, Trump amplified social media posts attacking Salazar, including several that called for her replacement. Even the ritual of flattering Trump while blaming his staff failed to keep the criticism away.

Republicans looking to distance themselves from Trump on affordability, immigration enforcement, Iran, or another issue therefore face an obvious dilemma. A president who insists that he alone decides leaves little room for allies to pretend that aides are really in charge.

The old line may create temporary rhetorical cover, but the examples here show its limits. For Republicans unwilling to criticize Trump directly, the advice remains simple: find a better line.