President Donald Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party might be starting to loosen, just a bit.
The few elected Republicans who regularly cross him — including Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — are more vocal than ever. And in recent days, daylight has emerged between the president and a handful of his top supporters in Congress.
The apparent shift is underway as Trump, the Republican Party’s undisputed leader, grapples with stubbornly low approval ratings — especially on the economy, a perennial issue on which he was elected that has only grown more important to Americans chafing under high prices.
Six U.S. House Republicans voted this week to overturn Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Tillis remained resolute in holding up the president’s Fed chair nomination in protest over a Justice Department investigation of the current one. The administration pulled back the sustained anti-immigration law enforcement push in Minnesota. And fallout from the Epstein files — in which Trump and allies are mentioned — is roiling the world and its most powerful players.
Democrats are jumping on the opening, with some pushing a narrative that “the tide is turning” on Trump. Their perceived momentum follows big wins in last fall’s off-year elections after hammering an affordability message, and as prediction markets favor them to win control of the House in the midterms.
