Republicans forced the Trump administration to at least temporarily drop its agenda to create an astonishingly corrupt $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund this week. The showdown served as a reminder of how the GOP has the ability to foil President Donald Trump’s plans when it wants to, but rarely chooses to exercise that power. And that’s why our current political crisis can’t solely be laid at the feet of Trump. The feckless party he leads rarely exerts its own agency, and that’s a choice.
Republican senators recently showed Trump that there are limits to their patience with his pet projects. A plan to pass a $72 billion immigration enforcement funding bill right before Memorial Day weekend was derailed after, as MS NOW reported, “several Senate Republicans spoke out” against the anti-weaponization fund and “appeared ready to support Democratic-led amendments to block the proposal.”
Things got heated. Reuters reported that “nearly half” of the GOP Senate majority “balked at the issue during a heated two-hour meeting with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, afterward described it on his podcast as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”
Why doesn’t the GOP act like this more often?
These objections forced Senate Republican leaders to pull the vote and send lawmakers home early for a recess. The message was clear: Rank-and-file senate Republicans can reject Trump’s demands by refusing to pass the legislation he wants to pass. And the Trump administration appeared to receive that message. On Tuesday, Blanche said, “We’re not moving forward with the fund. Period.” That came a day after the Justice Department announced it would comply with a court ruling temporarily blocking the fund.
It’s not hard to see why lawmakers from a party would push back against a fund whose sole discernible function would be to reward the president’s friends and political allies — potentially including those who tried to violently overthrow the government. Which raises the question, why doesn’t the GOP act like this more often?
Trump is wildly unpopular, hostile to addressing the country’s affordability crisis, mired in a war that he began on a whim, and fixated on turning Washington into an autocrats’ paradise. Even if I were a sincere MAGA ideologue, I would be angry that my egoistic party leader was clearly making policy decisions that hurt voters and the party’s chances in the coming midterm elections.
Sure, Trump’s track record of successfully backing primary challengers against the handful of lawmakers who dare to criticize him is a real source of intimidation. And he is unrivaled by any other figure in the party in terms of his grip on the base. But ultimately, his domination of the party can be resolved by collective action: If enough of the party rallies together and credibly threatens to freeze his agenda, as they just did, they can force him to retreat; Trump can’t launch a primary against his entire party. Refusing to fund Trump’s policy agenda would be a way for the GOP to push back against his authoritarian power grabs, dismantling of federal agencies, tariff extremism and casual “excursions” into other countries.
Yet on Thursday, Senate Republicans showed they’re still capable of failing a test they previously proved they can pass, rejecting multiple efforts to formally kill Trump’s weaponization fund effort. (Trump hasn’t ruled out the possibility of reviving it, but Republicans balked at the chance to ensure he cannot.)
Republican lawmakers aren’t held hostage by Trump’s power. They choose to enable it by refusing to take a stand collectively. Whether they’ve come to this position through approval of his behavior or acclimating to it, their choice shows they are full participants in American decline.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.