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President Donald Trump’s honeymoon with the Republican Congress is officially over.
Trump was apoplectic on Thursday as five Senate Republicans joined Democrat Tim Kaine’s effort to restrain further US military action in Venezuela. He called for their defeat in future elections, saying “Republicans should be ashamed” of the quintet.
But that was hardly the only pushback Trump faced this week; 11 House Republicans voted with Democrats to advance their extension of expiring health care subsidies, while multiple GOP senators urged Trump to tame his calls for the US to take over Greenland.
The Senate also passed a resolution Thursday unanimously supporting the display of a plaque honoring police officers who responded to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. 2021, just two days after Trump’s White House said Capitol Police were “deliberately escalating tensions” that day.
The rebellion looks more sedate than in Trump’s first term, when then-Republican Sen. Bob Corker called the White House an “adult day care.”
Still, Thursday’s defections from Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Todd Young of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Josh Hawley of Missouri showed a Congress more willing to use its power than even two months ago, when only two of those Republicans backed a related resolution.
Trump’s volcanic response captured his frustrations over being challenged by his party. Senators not facing voters this year took a long view.
“I think he’s got a temper,” Paul told Semafor after the president’s outburst on the Venezuela vote. “It’s a position that was not directed at him — you can see how he might think it’s a personal affront to him — but I’ve been talking about this issue for decades.”
The new dynamic is unlikely to change as Trump enters his second year back in office. He’s facing a narrower House GOP majority and a bloc of Republican senators who are willing to vote their own way even if it risks his wrath. Even more of them worry about his administration’s positioning on Greenland, and that even talking about seizing the country might hurt NATO in the long term.
Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., hosted the Danish ambassador to the US for a Thursday meeting in the wake of Trump’s designs on Greenland. Wicker declared afterward that there are “great opportunities” to enhance cooperation with Denmark but “there’s no willingness on their part to negotiate for the purchase or change of title in their land, which they’ve had for so long. That’s their prerogative.”
Wicker voted against Kaine’s Venezuela resolution. But Kaine said Trump’s rhetoric on Greenland, Colombia, and Cuba, plus the prospect of a long-term US presence in Venezuela, “probably helped us succeed [with Republicans] where on a similar vote a couple months ago we didn’t.”
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Trump’s attack on the five Senate Republicans will reverberate for a while. Collins is the most endangered incumbent Republican in the Senate and is seen as the party’s only candidate who can compete in Maine’s vital Senate race this fall. Some distance from Trump could help her win a general election, but too much could hurt her support among the state’s Republicans.
His call for her defeat prompted Collins to deadpan that “I guess this means that he would prefer to have Governor [Janet] Mills or somebody else” in the Senate, referring to one of her Democratic opponents.
But Trump’s own words before the Venezuela vote played a role as well. Collins said that as she weighed her vote, she looked at Trump’s recent refusal to rule out further US forces in Venezuela in an interview with The New York Times and his administration declining to rule out the possibility of using the military to acquire Greenland.
Collins says she supported the capture of Nicolás Maduro but that it was distinct from “what happens next.”
“When the president raises the issue, as he has with not only Venezuela, but Greenland, of military force being used, then it does implicate the War Powers Act and Congress’ constitutional role,” Collins said.
Trump’s eruption on Thursday singed one of his close political allies in Hawley, who said he read the Constitution as requiring Congress to authorize any further military action in Venezuela. Hawley said he understood why Trump was “ticked” but that he didn’t take “any offense” to Trump’s remarks.
“I think the president’s great. I love the president,” Hawley said.
Could more Republicans defect on future War Powers Act votes? Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., voted with Trump this week but said he has concerns “if we go any further.” He called this week’s Greenland talk “amateur hour.”
“If we start seeing a pattern of behavior that does involve the use of force or the threat of force, then we have to revisit the war powers resolution,” Tillis said.
The White House didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Room for Disagreement
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday’s advance of a war powers resolution was “unfortunate,” particularly because it will eat up floor time next week and potentially delay work on spending bills. But GOP leaders said it was toothless because Trump would veto the resolution even if it gets to his desk.
“It’s not going to change anything that happens. It’s going to do anything to change the impact of anything. The president has the full authority,” said Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
Still, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he wants the Senate GOP to discuss the measure in greater detail.
Burgess’s view
I was surprised that five Republicans joined Democrats on a vote that Trump was certain to interpret as a rebuke to his power. But the GOP Congress of 2026 is much different than that of a year ago. It shows in more candid comments — and occasionally surprising votes — from lawmakers in Trump’s party.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the whole episode is that senators like Collins and Young supported ousting Maduro, despite the party’s checkered past with interventions overseas. Young said diplomatically that his vote was “about potential future military action, not completed successful operations.”
That’s not how Trump sees it. You’re either with him or against him. And right now, he sees that a slice of the GOP Congress is at odds with him. It could grow.
Notable
- The Senate may also soon take up a war powers resolution covering Greenland, per Politico.