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This is an adapted excerpt from the Feb. 24 episode of “Deadline: White House.”
Across the country, Republicans are starting to feel the heat from their constituents over President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s sweeping federal cuts. Tensions ran high during two town hall meetings held by Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin during which voters demanded answers from the Republican about the recent cuts. Grothman represents a solidly conservative district and, as someone who lives in Wisconsin, I can tell you those scenes are not typical. That is not the kind of reception he’s used to getting at home.
Trump’s attacks on the federal government have been mostly a Washington-based story, but it’s about to become a district-level one.
Grothman has been in politics long enough to remember what happened in 2009 and the bubbling up of the tea party, which started in town hall meetings. But back then, Republicans benefited from that grassroots movement and the anger of the American people. It’s got to be kind of a strange mirror image watching it turn on them.
Over the last month, Trump’s attacks on the federal government have been mostly a Washington-based story, but it’s about to become a district-level one. Republicans know that although initially a lot of the focus has been on Musk, they’re next. People are starting to understand the impact of the administration’s federal cuts.
For voters, it’s one thing to maybe enjoy the theater of watching Musk break things, but when it’s their own community being impacted, they start to realize, “Wait, that’s the check that I rely on,” or “I can’t get my Veterans Crisis Line call answered.” And if Republicans move ahead with some of the budget cuts the House leadership is talking about, they’re going to see the outrage from voters spread dramatically. House Republicans have proposed a budget with massive cuts to Medicaid, a program on which a lot of their constituents rely.
That’s a real problem for Republican representatives and it means we’re likely going to see a lot more of the kind of scenes we saw out of Wisconsin on Friday. Up until now, Republican lawmakers have been more afraid of Trump than they have been of their own voters. We’re about to see whether or not that changes.