If there’s one thing President Donald Trump is certain about, it’s that what’s good for him is good for the Republican Party. As far as Trump is concerned, his goals are the Republican Party’s goals, and it’s only when other Republicans waver from his guiding light that they falter.
Republicans running in this year’s midterm elections aren’t so sure, though, as they are increasingly finding themselves tied to the president’s wildly unpopular vanity projects. As a result, Republican ambitions to keep control of Congress are being weighed down by Trump’s ego.
Republican ambitions to keep control of Congress are being weighed down by Trump’s ego.
While control of the House has long been seen as the more realistic goal for Democrats, now Republicans are reportedly concerned they’ll lose the Senate. Republican lawmakers could theoretically be working on multiple bills to shore up their chances of keeping the majority, including a bipartisan bill to address the nation’s housing crisis. But Trump is only interested in the SAVE America Act, which is designed to make it harder to vote, requiring physical proof of citizenship to register and photo ID to cast a ballot.
Setting aside the actual bill’s contents, the SAVE America Act is more of a shibboleth for Trump and MAGA Republicans about their modern stab-in-the-back myth. The president’s ongoing obsession with the 2020 election, which he still lies about being stolen from him, has led him to falsely claim for years that American elections are rife with fraud. According to Politico, there are plenty of Republican strategists and local party chairs who wish Trump would move on from 2020, but he’s as obsessed as ever.
“We don’t have a country if we’re going to have elections that are so corrupt and so dishonest like we’ve witnessed over the last period of time,” Trump told House Republicans during their annual retreat last week. Then he told reporters at a press conference that the SAVE America Act will “guarantee the midterms” if it passes, adding, “If you don’t get it, big trouble.” (It is already likely too late for the bill to affect this fall’s races, given past Supreme Court precedents about switching up election law so close to when votes are cast.)
The bill passed the House last month but will likely stall out in the Senate, where it would require 60 votes to break the filibuster. Even so, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to bring it to the floor this week and open a debate that could last up to two weeks. The House’s more conservative Republicans are refusing to move on either, with Punchbowl News reporting that “several hardline Republicans say they won’t let Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pass anything unless there’s progress on the SAVE America Act.”
Backing Trump’s quixotic bid to take over federal elections is all well and good for lawmakers in safe districts who are more worried about getting primaried by a Republican who’s more MAGA than they’re worried about facing a Democrat in the general election. But control of the House will be decided in races in which the Republican and Democratic candidates are evenly matched, and an obsession with the SAVE Act will leave those Republicans with few victories to tout.
Neither are the rest of Trump’s priorities beneficial for Republican candidates, especially not those whose constituents are likely worried about rising costs.
But to admit there are problems under his rule is to admit he is not all-powerful, something that cuts against Trump’s need to mythologize himself. Trump is as obsessed with tariffs as he is the 2020 election and refuses to acknowledge them as extra taxes on American consumers. A late-night social media diatribe from him Sunday illustrated his ongoing anger at the Supreme Court for rejecting his power to arbitrarily set tariffs rates. The issue still has his unbroken interest. Lawmakers, most of whom are loath to restore that power, are likely more dialed in on polls showing 60% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s tariff policy. The Iran war is unpopular, too. Some polls showed that it was more unpopular at its outset than any modern American war at its respective start, and the longer it drags on, the greater the potential for economic pain. But Trump has treated the military campaign, which is entering its third week, as more proof of his greatness and not a war in need of a serious strategy and well-defined goals. Throughout it all, most swing-seat candidates — and many inside the White House even — would prefer that the focus remain the affordability crisis that Trump has repeatedly dismissed as a “hoax.” But to admit there are problems under his rule is to admit he is not all-powerful, something that cuts against Trump’s need to mythologize himself. Even his would-be adversaries such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have recognized that for anything to get done under his administration, there needs to be a direct line drawn between policy and Trump’s egotism. With little chance of getting much done between now and Election Day, GOP lawmakers on the ballot are stuck with trying to sell their constituents on the idea that Trump tearing down parts of the White House is making their lives better. It’s sure to be frustrating for those Republican candidates who lose in November that the president didn’t do everything he could to help them. But we know what Trump will say: If his name had been on the ballot, things would have have been different.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House. 
