House

Trump’s grip on GOP lawmakers shows signs of slipping amid election year

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by Sudiksha Kochi - 05/17/26 6:00 AM ET

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by Sudiksha Kochi - 05/17/26 6:00 AM ET

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President Trump’s ironclad grip on Congress is beginning to show signs of strain, as Republicans increasingly break from him in major legislative fights and seek to push their own priorities instead.

While Trump still commands significant influence within the party, a growing number of lawmakers — from moderates to hard-line conservatives — are proving more willing to defy the White House as they navigate tough reelection fights, battleground district politics and a broader push to convince voters they are focused on affordability and kitchen-table issues.

The breaks from Trump have become more prominent in recent weeks.

House GOP leaders, for instance, are moving forward with an amended, bipartisan version of a Senate-passed housing bill this week, despite pressure from Trump to take up the Senate measure with no changes. Moderates have also balked at the administration’s proposal to provide $1 billion in security funding for a new White House ballroom and other Secret Service priorities, warning they would be reluctant to support an immigration enforcement funding package with such a provision attached to it.

At the same time, privacy hawks in the party are pushing back against Trump’s call for a “clean” 18-month extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) warrantless spying powers. Members of the House Freedom Caucus are demanding sweeping changes to Section 702 of FISA, including a warrant requirement, and looking to attach a permanent ban on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) before agreeing to any long-term renewal. Congress has already approved two short-term extensions of Section 702, as lawmakers remain deadlocked over reforms.

And Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) didn’t put a Senate-passed bipartisan bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the floor for weeks, until after a budget blueprint for a second reconciliation bill passed the House, despite a memo from the White House to take action on the measure.

The disputes underscore a broader reality facing Trump: that in a narrowly divided House, even his endorsement is no longer enough to guarantee Republicans will fall in line.

House Republicans have largely dismissed suggestions that they are bucking Trump or that he is losing a bit of influence, arguing instead that the disagreements reflect normal policy differences within a razor-thin margin.

“He’s making the right decisions, and I think Americans appreciate that. Now, is it close on votes? I mean, when you’ve got one body that has a one or two-seat majority, yeah, you have to get almost total unanimous votes, which is hard to get. So no, he’s not losing influence,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.

Norman added, “There are 435 members. 100 senators. You’re going to have some differences of opinion. That’s a good thing. That’s how democracy works.”

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), a moderate who voted to impeach Trump and is set to retire, echoed similar sentiments, saying it’s a “good thing if there’s a little difference between the two branches.”

“We are a separate branch of government. We should have different opinions and … we have a different process, and we have to bring together a lot of different minds to come up with a solution,” Newhouse said.

Even as some lawmakers buck him on legislation, Trump has been flexing his power among the Republican base. In Indiana, six of seven state lawmakers who defied the president on redistricting lost to Trump-backed primary opponents.

On Saturday night, two Trump-endorsed candidates advanced to a runoff in the Louisiana Senate GOP primary, besting Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who had voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial.

And Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) a frequent critic of Trump, was down in a recent poll to a Trump-backed primary challenger just days before his primary.

Still, even the relatively rare breaks are notable, as they have the power to throw Trump’s legislative agenda off course, even as GOP lawmakers race to advance as many of his priorities as possible in the coming months before Democrats potentially take control of the House next year.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), a staunch Trump ally, said this past week she would not support advancing the housing bill if it came to the floor, despite the president urging Congress to pass the Senate-crafted legislation just a day earlier in a Truth Social post.

Johnson needs near-unanimous GOP support on any procedural rule that would tee up debate and a final vote on legislation. Proced