Trump and GOP at each other’s throats as midterm anxieties spiral

President Donald Trump is increasingly at odds with his own Republican Party, with The Hill reporting that they are at each other's throats over "a number of hot-button issues" as the party scrambles to address midterm anxieties.

As the outlet reported on Monday morning, "despite Trump’s success in defeating GOP House members and Senators who defy him in Republican primaries," GOP lawmakers in Congress are increasingly willing to break with him on key issues, particularly ones where the president's stances are toxic with voters.

"Four House Republicans joined with Republicans to pass a war powers resolution aimed at forcing the president to end the war in Iran," the report detailed. "Six Republican senators voted with Democrats on a proposal to block the construction of Trump’s planned White House ballroom unless Congress formally authorizes the project."

It continued: "Six GOP senators also banded together with Democrats to support an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to block Trump from bringing back the controversial $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund, which members of both parties have cast as a 'slush fund' that could dole out money to Trump allies, including people convicted of Jan. 6 crimes against police."

Trump has also prompted GOP pushback when he nominated Bill Pulte — director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and previously a businessman with zero intelligence experience — to replace Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Three Republicans in the Senate joined with Democrats to vote on a measure barring Pulte from serving in the role.

Alongside Cassidy, other Republicans who lost their reelection chances to Trump-backed primary challengers have been among this cohort opposing his plans, including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. This is in addition to some more moderate Republicans, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is not seeking reelection.

“The House margin was always pretty narrow, but now that you’ve antagonized Tillis, Cassidy, Cornyn, and you add to that the kind of dynamics you already have with Murkowski and Collins, I think you’re creating a much bigger challenge to actually getting anything passed in the Senate this year," Marc Short, the former chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, told The Hill.

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