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Donald Trump’s Grip On Republicans Is Slipping

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, in his second term, appears to be suffering a case of early-onset Lame Duck syndrome.

His stunning about-face this week on releasing information related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — after it became clear House Republicans would vote against his wishes — is only the latest sign his iron grip on the Republican Party is beginning to slip.

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Over the last few weeks, Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have grown increasingly willing to buck their leader. Trump’s push to eliminate the filibuster amid the government shutdown fight flamed out in the Senate. Several Republican senators voted to rebuke him over his tariffs. Trump’s threats failed to convince enough Indiana state senators to support his mid-cycle redistricting scheme. And his comments backing H-1B visas earlier this month caused a huge backlash from some of the most influential pro-Trump voices on the right.

“We should be more of America first, not just party first, right?” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a vocal critic of Trump’s policies, including his tariffs, told HuffPost. “So I think this is healthy, that we have more freedom. And I’ve had it, but more of us are having it too, because if the president doesn’t get loyal criticism, he’s more apt to go down a bad path. So he needs people to speak out, say, ‘Hey, why are you putting tariffs on coffee? We don’t grow coffee.’”

The starkest intraparty split of all has been between Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), once his biggest supporter in Congress. Greene has done more than any other lawmaker to advocate for his agenda, including by making excuses for his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and to try to humiliate his enemies, such as by displaying naked pictures of Joe Biden’s wayward son.

Greene championed the “Make America Great Again” movement’s push for a full release of the Epstein files, which many commentators, including several who hold high-ranking posts in Trump’s second administration, have described as a sort of Rosetta Stone that would expose an elite pedophile ring.

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For all her work forcing the House to vote on legislation releasing the files, however, Trump has called Greene a “traitor” and even seemed to revel in the death threats she received amid their fallout.

On Tuesday morning, Greene said Trump’s opposition to releasing the Epstein files had badly damaged the MAGA movement.

“This has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA, is watching the man that we supported early on three elections, for people that stood hours, slept in their cars, to go to rallies, have fought for truth and transparency and to hold what we consider a corrupt government accountable — watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart,” Greene said.

Over the summer, amid a right-wing furor over the Justice Department’s refusal to release its Epstein files, three Republicans on a House Oversight subcommittee voted in favor of a surprise Democratic motion to send a subpoena to the Justice Department. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) issued the demand, as he was required to do by House rules, but he’s gone even further by sending subpoenas to the Epstein estate. The material from the estate — including Trump’s creepy “birthday book” message to Epstein from 2003, and later emails from Epstein talking about his relationship with Trump and about how Trump “knew about the girls” — has seriously undermined Trump’s efforts to distance himself from Epstein.

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Trump, meanwhile, sought to spin his reversal on releasing Epstein files as something he always believed should happen, even though he sought desperately to convince other House Republicans not to support Greene’s legislation requiring the Department of Justice to release the information.

“We have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post over the weekend, calling it “a Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Successes of the Republican Party.”

Trump’s growing difficulties in bending the GOP to his will come amid rising concern among the public and in the White House about the economy and affordability. On Monday, Trump announced he is removing tariffs on many food imports, including beef, coffee, bananas and avocados, to combat rising grocery prices driven by inflation. The White House touted the executive order as a major accomplishment, even though Trump was the one who levied the tariffs in the first place, contributing to the spike in food prices.

“Thanks to President Trump’s deal-making, we’re making trade fair again, & winning BIG,” The White House said in a post online.

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Trump is also struggling with coming up with an alternative health care plan to address the year-end expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, an issue that held up government funding for 43 days. Roughly 22 million Americans are projected to see their health insurance premiums skyrocket if Congress doesn’t act to extend the subsidies.

Some vulnerable House Republicans in purple districts have called for a short-term extension of the subsidies, while other GOP lawmakers are pushing for reforms to the program.

Trump, meanwhile, urged the Senate not to “waste” time on passing an extension next month. He said in a Truth Social post the only health care plan he would “SUPPORT OR APPROVE” would be “SENDING THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE” instead of going through insurance companies.

The GOP’s divisions on health care and the blue wave emerging in elections in Virginia, New York and New Jersey earlier this month have buoyed Democrats as they look ahead to next year’s congressional midterms.

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“Donald Trump’s unhinged ramblings shows he still has no idea how anything actually works,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement on Tuesday. “Sending people a few thousand dollars while doing nothing to lower healthcare costs is a scheme to help the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working people with cancer or pre-existing conditions.”