Dem
47
GOP
53
As we have pointed out numerous times, Donald Trump has run up against some pretty stiff resistance in his first 100 days in office. The courts are largely holding the line (see below for more). The news media, excepting de facto state-run media like Fox, is holding him accountable. Some law firms are fighting back. Some universities are fighting back. Wall Street has expressed its displeasure. There have been large and frequent protests, including yesterday. Public opinion has soured, and he's not only underwater, approval-wise, but he's on the cusp of being double-digits underwater (at the moment, on average, 52.7% of voters disapprove, as opposed to 43.9% of voters who approve, for a net of -8.8%).
However, amid all of this pushback, the institution that is most responsible for keeping Trump in line, per the Constitution, has been missing in action. That, of course, would be Congress, where nearly all Republican members are scared—for their political lives, or their actual lives, or both—to oppose the Dear Leader. Two votes this week, one in each chamber, speak to the problem.
We'll start with the Senate, since it's the upper chamber. Nearly all of the 53 Republicans who serve there know, full well, that Trump's trade war is extremely ill-advised. Even those members who are protectionist know that tariffs are to be deployed deftly, and with precision, like a scalpel. Trump's chainsaw approach, by contrast, is just begging for both economic and political upheaval. On Wednesday, the Senate voted on a Democratic-sponsored resolution that would have canceled the "emergency" tariffs that the administration has imposed. The final tally was 49-49, with Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joining 46 Democrats in supporting the measure. It might well have succeeded, but Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), both of whom expressed support for the proposal, were absent. A second vote, to bring the measure up for a second vote next week, failed 50-49, with every member voting the same way they had on the original measure, and President of the Senate J.D. Vance casting the decisive tie-breaking vote.
Moving on to the House, nearly every member on both sides of the aisle knows full well that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been a big problem and that, in particular, his use of Signal poses huge risks to national security. The Democrats want to investigate the matter, since that's about the only power the House has in these circumstances (undoubtedly, an impeachment would go nowhere). And so, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) leading the way, House Republicans unanimously approved a rule that stops the minority party from bringing up resolutions of inquiry. So, there will be no investigation.
Perhaps our headline here seems unduly judgmental. We do not think so. This week, Congressional Republicans had to choose: Is it better to: (1) push back against the tariffs/threats to national security, or (2) stick our heads in the sand, and risk being accused of not caring about the economy and/or national security. Ultimately, 268 of the 272 GOP members of the Congress chose Option #2. Our headline is just us doing our small part to make certain those 268 suffer the consequences of their choices, for all the good it will do. (Z)