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Trump’s wake-up call: Republicans are ready to challenge him

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Trump's wake-up call: Republicans are ready to challenge him

Donald Trump is getting a rude awakening that his control over the Republican Party is not absolute.

In less than 24 hours, 38 House Republicans rejected the stopgap spending bill that the president-elect publicly supported after shooting down President Mike Johnson’s original proposal to keep the federal government running after Friday. And his defiance came even as Trump and his allies threatened to file primary challenges against members of the Republican Party who did not fall in line.

It was just the latest example of Trump confronting the limits of his power, especially over his own party. Senate Republicans already dealt Trump a blow when a handful of them made clear they would not support Trump’s first choice for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, prompting him to withdraw. And that was after John Thune was chosen over Rick Scott as Senate GOP leader against the wishes of Trump’s allies.

Now, while it’s entirely possible that Republican lawmakers will end up giving Trump what he wants, Thursday night’s vote has shown that the GOP is far from fully aligned with the president-elect.

“For a long time there were always calls of ‘who in the Republican Party will ever take on Trump?’ And now we certainly have it. But it may not be in the ideal way,” said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican Party strategist and appointee in the first Trump administration.

“This is a turning point: how Trump responds from outside the caucus, how he deals with those who are not ready to make deals… this is really just setting the battlefield and testing the waters for the next four years.” Bartlett said. .

Trump’s push to get Republicans to agree to his demands ran into long-standing GOP resistance to raising the debt ceiling. Doing so is a big ask for fiscal conservatives, and viewed through that lens, it’s no surprise the bill failed.

While Trump had praised the reworked deal as a “SUCCESS in Washington” and urged “all Republicans, and even Democrats” to vote for the bill he called “VITAL to the America First agenda,” some in his party broke ranks.

House Republicans are now considering a new funding proposal that would neither expand nor eliminate the debt ceiling as Trump wanted. Trump has not yet taken a public position on the plan.

“Republicans campaigned to cut spending and reduce the $35 trillion national debt. You can’t do that by suspending the debt limit,” said Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.). wrote in X on Thursday. “Until President-elect Trump takes office, I will not grant Joe Biden an extension of the unlimited debt limit.”

Rep. Greg Lopez (R-Colo.), another Republican who opposed the bill Thursday, said in a statement that he could not support a continuing resolution “that does not consider our nation’s growing $36 trillion debt and eliminate the debt ceiling, creating an open checkbook for Congress to spend more money it no longer has.”

And Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) said on X that “ending reckless spending and addressing the national debt immediately” is what will allow Trump to “shake up the status quo.”

“I understand President Trump’s concern that a fight over the debt ceiling will delay the implementation of his agenda, but to make America great again, we have to end business as usual in Washington here and now,” McCormick wrote.

A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Their resistance is an early indicator of areas where Republicans are willing to break with Trump on policy, and a warning sign that while the incoming president has enjoyed broad influence over Johnson, that influence may not extend. to all rank-and-file members of the party. -present each vote. And with such a slim majority in the House, a challenge from a few Republicans may have an impact.

“We talk about MAGA, Freedom Caucus, etc., but there is a sizable portion of the conference who are members of the OG Tea Party,” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and Hill alumnus. “Raising the debt ceiling tests the limits of what would otherwise be enormous influence over the party.”

But Trump also has a defiant streak. In the hours since his preferred deal collapsed, Trump has begun advocating for extending the debt ceiling even further: to 2029.

And after Republicans helped thwart the second interim deal, Trump quickly began working to shift the blame for any potential government shutdown onto President Joe Biden.

“Remember, the pressure is on whoever is president,” he wrote on his Truth Social website early Friday morning. Then, in a later missive: “This is a problem Biden must solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!”

Still, some Republicans worry that the last few days are a sign that, like his first term, Trump may not be able to do as much as he hoped because, they say, he is focused on the wrong things.

A person close to Trump, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, worried that the president-elect’s decision to use his political capital to unsuccessfully try to pass a new funding bill could echo his efforts. failed to end Obamacare early in his first term. rather than pursuing a more popular policy like an infrastructure overhaul.

“I hope we’re not in the same place here,” the person said.

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