Are Republicans growing a spine to stand up to Trump? | Opinion – USA Today
Throughout the Trump years, Republican lawmakers devolved into invertebrates, conducting the people’s business in Congress like a pack of gelatinous meat sacks only capable of nodding along to the reckless whims and babbling nonsense of their leader.
But now, with midterm elections approaching and President Donald Trump’s approval rating rivaling that of syphilis, GOP lawmakers are starting to show the faintest signs of embryonic spines.
On June 3, the House passed a Democratic-led resolution to end the war in Iran. Four Republicans voted with the Democrats, a small but still remarkable rebuke of a president whose party members generally fight over who gets to agree with him more.
Predictably, Trump responded on social media in the early morning hours of June 4, lambasting the Republicans who dared to vote their conscience as “bad Republicans.” That’s a funny thing to say when you’re a Republican who started an unnecessary war that jacked up America’s fuel prices.
Trump wrote: “Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand. The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories. The four Republicans, that’s a whole other story ‒ They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!!”
I mean, aren’t Republicans a little sick of this by now? It’s unserious claptrap from a president who, since he started the war at the end of February, has kept claiming the war is almost over.
That seems unhelpful if you’re a GOP candidate facing constituents who can’t afford gas or hamburger meat.
Trump can squawk about the vote being meaningless and B.S. about being “in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War,” but as The New York Times noted: “Adoption of the resolution was a remarkable rebuke to Mr. Trump and his handling of the conflict, after he has repeatedly dismissed any effort by Congress to curb his power and as the G.O.P. has largely ceded its prerogatives to do so, deferring to him time and again.”
The war powers vote was one of several recent instances of Republican pushback against the man they know will turn on them at the drop of a dime.
First, congressional Republicans snapped back hard on the $1.8 billion slush fund Trump wanted to create to dole out money to insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol in 2021, and other assorted “victims” of what he calls the weaponization of government. (That would be the same government Trump is now using to go after his political enemies, of course.)
And on June 3, Republicans in the Senate pulled $1 billion in security funding for Trump’s ludicrous 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom out of a budget reconciliation bill. The ballroom seems to mean more to Trump than all of America, so that was as close to a slap in the face as present-day Republicans can give this president.
A number of GOP lawmakers also spoke out against Trump’s recent appointment of Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting director of national intelligence, with Sen. John Cornyn of Texas saying, “I see no evidence of any qualifications for that job.”
The Republican Party remains largely in lockstep with Trump as he marches them and the rest of us off an economic and reputational cliff. But the war powers vote and submarining the beloved ballroom are clear signs that cracks are forming in the party.
I expect those cracks will spread and deepen the closer we get to the midterms. And if the country is lucky, and voters are smart, the whole cult-of-personality monument Trump built from the spines Republicans willingly surrendered will come tumbling on down.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.
