With just over five months until the midterm elections, President Donald Trump appears focused on just about everything but maintaining Republican control of Congress.
He endorsed a MAGA candidate against Texas’ longest-serving Republican senator, ignoring warnings that he could jeopardize the seat. He has been bragging almost daily about his expensive new White House ballroom. He downplays the rise in gasoline prices, calling the jump in pump prices a “small thing” last week compared to what he is trying to do with Iran. And even as he engages, on weekends, in negotiations to end the war with Iran that he himself started, Trump makes it clear that he prioritizes his legacy abroad above the issue of expensive living, which he has repeatedly called a Democratic “hoax.”
For many, the new shock came last week, when Trump created a $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they were victims of “instrumentalization and lawfare”, including those who attacked the Capitol and security officers on January 6, 2021.
Continues after advertising
Angered, Republican senators — many of whom were present that day — went home frustrated with a president who appears willing to pursue his personal priorities ahead of the November elections, even if it hurts his own party. On Thursday, they left Washington without approving resources for the immigration repression package defended by Trump or the US$1 billion he wants for his party room.
Republicans admit that the party’s fate is tied to the president, according to interviews with several leaders in recent weeks. At the same time, they recognize that they can do little to force you to act on their behalf.
“The president was elected to boost the economy, bring down inflation, contain illegal immigration and move the country away from culture woke” said Whit Ayres, a public opinion pollster with ties to the Republican Party. “If his biggest goal was to maintain control of Congress, he wouldn’t be doing what he’s doing.”
Ayres called the US$1.776 billion fund — a figure that references 250 years of US independence — “a new level of boldness”. Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who will not seek re-election, criticized the measure, calling it “stupidity on legs”, which earned him a response from Trump on social media on Friday. The president called him “weak and ineffective” and a “troublemaker.”
“We need the Republicans to do well in November,” Tillis countered, “but these stupid things are destroying our chances!”
Trump has always been an inward-looking political leader who trusts his instincts — even if that means going off script. In his second term, he surrounded himself with a senior team of loyalists who, for the most part, endorse these impulses. The institutional brakes that once contained him have been weakened or disappeared, with the cabinet and the Republican caucus largely proving docile to his demands over the last 16 months.
Continues after advertising
In the process, the president’s overall approval rating fell to the lowest level on record, leaving Republicans in Congress nervous about November’s prospects. A string of victories in Republican primaries — in which Trump helped to oust those who opposed him — appears to have encouraged him to continue focusing on personal projects, including attacks on those he considers insufficiently loyal.
Unpopular presidents often give parliamentarians in difficult situations the opportunity to move away from the White House. Trump, however, demands the opposite movement: he wants party members increasingly closer.
On Wednesday, a day after the primary defeat of Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of his main internal critics, Trump took aim at Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — the only House Republican to be elected in a district that Trump himself lost in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
Continues after advertising
“He likes to vote against Trump,” the president said, in an unprovoked message. “You know what happens with that? It doesn’t end well.”
Trump, it is true, offers some advantages. Command one super PAC with a cash flow of US$350 million, which allies want to see in action. It has also demonstrated the ability to mobilize the electorate like few others — even though the party has struggled in the last decade when its name was not on the ballot.
But even Trump’s Republican allies are starting to fret over what they see as a “Trump first” agenda, although most avoid confronting him openly, wary of his temper and long memory. Several spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid presidential ire.
Continues after advertising
Trump’s influence on those still running for office was clear in the statements of the Republican candidate who will seek Tillis’s seat, Michael Whatley, who the president had appointed in the past to head the Republican National Committee.
Without hesitation, Whatley supported the president and the $1.8 billion fund.
“The Department of Justice under Joe Biden has been completely instrumentalized,” he told Fox News on Friday. “He went after the president, he went after his allies. This absolutely can never happen again.”
Continues after advertising
What Trump has prioritized recently goes beyond what many loyal Republicans expected.
He took on the role of “chief builder,” overseeing the construction of the new White House ballroom, having the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool painted on the National Mall, advancing the idea of a triumphal arch on the banks of the Potomac River, and transforming a public golf course in Washington into a “championship-level course.”
He also acts as “head of personal marketing”, with the government stamping his face on passports, banknotes, banners on federal buildings and national park passes.
At the same time, Trump has been dismissive of discussions about the cost of living, despite polls showing the economy as voters’ biggest concern. In the most recent Times/Siena survey, only 28% of respondents approved of the president’s handling of famine. Among independents — a crucial group — 77% disapproved.
On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its consumer confidence index, a survey begun in 1952, fell to the lowest level in history. The average price of gasoline on Sunday was about $4.52 a gallon, according to AAA, up from $3.19 a year earlier.
When he has been more directly involved in electoral politics, Trump has done so in ways that have angered many Republicans. One example was the endorsement, on Tuesday, of MAGA ally Ken Paxton against Senator John Cornyn of Texas — a name that Republican leaders have said for months could put the Senate seat at risk.
Party officials warn they may have to spend $100 million to support Paxton, the target of past scandals, including an impeachment trial on corruption charges and a messy divorce. The primary runoff between Paxton and Cornyn will be this Tuesday.
The combination of Trump’s support for Paxton, the defeat of Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana in a May 16 primary, and the president’s insistence on the $1.8 billion fund to potentially benefit allies has unusually strained relations with Senate Republicans.
“It’s his decision,” Majority Leader Sen. John Thune said last week on Capitol Hill about endorsing Paxton, raising his hand in exasperation.
It drew attention to the fact that the harshest critics were precisely those who were preparing to leave public life.
Thune’s predecessor in leadership, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican from Kentucky, even adopted the Democratic discourse by calling the fund a “black box to pay people who attack police officers”. Tillis mocked the idea of compensating those who “attacked” security forces.
“How absurd is this sentence coming out of my mouth?” he asked.
c.2026 The New York Times Company
