(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Looks like convicted felon, court-adjudicated sexual predator, serial liar and documented fraud president Donald Trump has pushed his usually cult-like Republican MAGA Maggots too far as vote counters saw defeat coming for his $1.8 billion “slush fund” for his seditionous allies, his constitutional war with Iran and his vanity-driven ballroom for the White House.
GOP leaders in the House and Senate pulled the plug on any additional action before Congress adjourns for the week following Memorial Day, but those who come home to their states and districts may face angry voters who are demanding action to stop wannabe fascst dictator Trump.
Reports Luke Broadwater in The New York Times:
For much of President Trump’s time in office, Republican lawmakers have had little appetite to stand up to his brand of vindictive politics.
Through revenge primary campaigns, bullying social media posts and the threat that he can command the G.O.P. base to go after anyone at any time, Mr. Trump has brought lawmakers in his party under his control like no president in modern history. A single critical word against Mr. Trump or his agenda could result in a full-scale retribution campaign to force a disloyal Republican from office.
But this week, in a rarity in G.O.P. politics, Mr. Trump’s taunts, bullying and threats have backfired, at least for now. Senate Republicans, after the president targeted two of their own, stood up to Mr. Trump on two of his biggest priorities: money for his White House ballroom, and a $1.8 billion fund to reward Trump supporters who claim political persecution by Democrats, such as the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops?” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky. “Utterly stupid, morally wrong — take your pick.”
Then, in another sign that the party was pushing back on Mr. Trump, House Republicans canceled a vote on a resolution to halt the war in Iran, after it became clear they did not have enough votes to defeat it.
The cracks in the president’s dominance over Senate Republicans stemmed from two main sources. First, Mr. Trump asked Republican lawmakers to take up politically unpopular issues in a midterm election year.
At a time when gas prices are high, Americans are struggling to make ends meet. And as an unpopular war against Iran drags on, any Republican running for office will want to be seen as fighting for the American people, not bestowing lavish gifts upon the president and his associates, particularly ones who were convicted of crimes.
“Is it possible on May 21, 2026, Republicans finally found an ethical bridge too far?” asked Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat. “I wonder: Could it have been that golden ballroom for a billion bucks that was supposed to be freebie that Mar-a-Lago golf buddies were going to pitch in for? Or perhaps it was this incredible slush fund — I don’t know quite what to call it — it was a Capitol Police Cop Beaters Relief Fund?”
Mr. Trump has also openly attacked and worked against the very people he now needs to pass his priorities. There are only 53 Republican senators, several of whom are already independent minded and unlikely to support the most extreme parts of the president’s agenda.
Mr. Trump did himself no favors when he supported a candidate to defeat Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana in a Republican primary, and endorsed a G.O.P. candidate against Senator John Cornyn of Texas. The result of those moves was to ensure that there would be fewer Republican senators who feel the need to be loyal to the president.
“You can’t underestimate the psychological impact of endorsing against Cornyn like that,” said Michael Ricci, a former top communications aide to Speakers Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and John A. Boehner of Ohio, both Republicans. “Cornyn is a big figure in the conference. He was a few votes shy of being majority leader. He has been doing events for all these members. I just feel like that was an accelerant on an already simmering flame.”
Senate Republicans had already appeared ready to jettison one Trump priority — $1 billion for security, including for his ballroom project — from the spending bill. But then came news of Mr. Trump’s new $1.8 billion fund to pay people who claim they were politically persecuted. That fund caused G.O.P. lawmakers to abandon plans to take up a bill on Thursday to fund the president’s immigration crackdown.
“It is in real trouble, and it should be,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who is known to oppose the most extreme parts of Mr. Trump’s agenda.
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, did not dispute that the president’s political moves, which have cost one incumbent his seat and have threatened another, may have fueled some of the Republican opposition to the Justice Department fund.
“I think it’s hard to divorce anything that happens here from what’s happening in the political atmosphere around us,” he told reporters. He added: “There’s a political component to everything we do around here.”
Trouble is also brewing in the House of Representatives. Megan Mineiro, Robert Jimison and Michael Gold report in The Times:
House Republicans on Thursday abruptly canceled a vote on a resolution directing President Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from Iran or win approval from Congress to continue the war, after it became clear they lacked the votes to defeat the measure.
The retreat was a striking setback that exposed fractures within the G.O.P. over the conflict at a moment when the party has begun pushing back forcefully on Mr. Trump and his agenda.
It also marked the latest embarrassing blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, who has toiled to defeat efforts to challenge or limit the war in line with the president’s wishes, but is contending with growing wariness within his party as the midterm elections approach and the realities of his minuscule majority.
The decision to shelve the war powers resolution came after Republicans had lost control of the floor during an earlier unrelated vote, with several of their members defecting and several more absent. As the House chamber descended into chaos, leaders wary of risking another public defeat on a far more politically consequential vote abruptly scrapped the Iran war measure.
The move came just days after a similar resolution moved ahead in the Senate, when a handful of G.O.P. defectors broke from the president and opposed the war. That vote indicated an increasing willingness by some members of the president’s party to pressure him to end a conflict that a majority of Americans say is not worth the costs.
Last week, a similar measure failed in the House by the barest of margins — on a tie vote — leaving Republican leaders no room for more defections.
“They probably did it because they didn’t have the votes,” said Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who last week sided with Democrats in favor of a similar resolution and said he had planned to do so again on Thursday. “I don’t think they’re going to have the votes when we get back.”
“The next time they bring it,” he added, “it’s passing.”
Republican anger over Trump’s “revenge” stunts against thier colleagues who vote against the disgraced president has also have many talking among themselves that they may need to have a majority in the Senate after the midterms. Such a majority could gives the edge to remove Trump from the presidency through impeachment.
Says Colin Powell, Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and a National Security advisor: “What he is responsible for is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in all my years as a government employee here in the United States of America
and in Washington, D.C. He should be totally ashamed of himself, and he should
take that shame and turn it into a resignation as quickly as possible.”
John Boehner, for Republican Speaker of the House: “It’s time for Donald Trump to
consider resigning his post. He has violated his oath of office to protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States.”
In joint statement, 25 former Republican lawmakers said: There is no excuse for nor defense of a President of the United States to actively orchestrate an insurrection on a separate but coequal branch of government. Surely, the Founders would be sickened by the thought of such actions. As
members of the branch that was under attack—not just politically but physically—you must remove the president from office. Congress must send a strong and clear message not just to this president but future presidents that this type of behavior will not be tolerated or accepted. Frankly, the message also needs to be made clear to the American people that there is no place in politics for political violence.”
Their messages are clear: Dump Trump to save what’s left of Amercan democracy and our way of life.
