There’s a saying in politics that politicians often don’t find their courage until they decide to retire or the voters make that decision for them.
Now that US President Donald Trump has turned on two senior Republican senators for not being sufficiently obsequious, it is time for them to take their manhood out of a blind trust and begin redeeming their integrity by serving the nation instead of the giant ego trying to swallow the world.
Trump’s proposed slush fund for January 6 insurrectionists and his demand for permanent immunity from tax audits could prove a turning point for a few GOP stalwarts, although there’s no indication these latest abuses of power are dampening the ardor of his MAGA base.
Two-term Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and four-term Sen. John Cornyn were targeted by Trump for not being sufficiently loyal.
Cassidy’s case was revenge. No matter how supportive he has been in this term, he apparently cannot be forgiven for being one of seven Republicans who voted against Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial.
Cornyn voted to acquit, but after months of virtual begging (he wanted to create Trump Interstate Highway 47 – get it?), he lost Trump’s blessing to Texas’s firebrand Attorney-General Ken Paxton, calling him a “true MAGA Warrior.” Like his benefactor, the scandal-plagued Paxton is an admitted adulterer who was impeached (by the Texas House) on charges of bribery and abuse of office, and acquitted.
Democrats are optimistic that Trump’s tendency to put fealty (remember Herschel Walker, Doc Oz, and Kari Lake?) over electability improves their chances of Democrat James Talarico winning Texas and flipping the Senate. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Trump’s endorsement of Paxton put the seat “in jeopardy.”
Cassidy has a particular opportunity to redeem himself, if he has the courage. As a respected colleague, physician, and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, he was in the unique position to block the Senate confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Instead, he put loyalty to Trump ahead of his professional judgment and conscience.
He knew about Kennedy’s opposition to childhood vaccines, his debunked theories about autism, and questionable credentials (like boasting of snorting cocaine from a toilet seat) were a threat to the American health system, which has proven worse than anyone expected.
It is not too late to put the doctor role ahead of the senator title and convene hearings to shine the national spotlight on this quackery and lead a congressional campaign to remove Kennedy and his crew of incompetents, and demand the president pick quality leadership. Or am I being naive?
The American Public Health Association contends Kennedy’s “anti-science agenda” has been “a wrecking ball” that “endangers American lives.”
An editorial in The Lancet, the prestigious medical journal, has called Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement a “dangerous pseudoscientific” scheme “to discredit mainstream medicine.”
Cassidy, 68, and Cornyn, 74, don’t leave office until January 3, 2027. They may not have a political future, but there’s still time for redemption.
When loyalty to Trump meets political survival
They shouldn't have to go it alone. As the president’s approval ratings plunge, and the price of gas and hamburgers soars, GOP lawmakers have an opportunity to take their backbones out of storage. The primary season showed Trump’s total domination of the GOP, but now candidates must look beyond the MAGA faithful to November’s independents and swing voters.
Some may have to choose between reelection or backing Trump’s widely unpopular gilded billion-dollar ballroom, intrusive arch, colored reflecting pool, paved-over rose garden, signature on currency, statues littering recreational areas, and more Walmart tchotchkes littering the Oval Office.
One turning point may be Trump’s $1.776 billion (isn’t he clever) slush fund for January 6 insurrectionists. As part of the package Trump is giving himself – it’s his administration – a “get out of taxes free” card with a lifetime exemption from IRS audits for a man who has boasted of paying less in taxes than school teachers.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said giving money to people who pleaded guilty to January 6 violent crimes against police is a “payout pot for punks” and “stupid on stilts.” The outspoken Tillis is retiring under pressure from Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s vanity projects may be helping lawmakers find their spines with the encouragement of outraged constituents.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) reported that some senators were screaming at Acting Attorney-General Todd Blanche during a closed-door Republican meeting, when he tried to convince them to support the tax breaks for Trump and payoffs for insurrectionists. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) called it “a slush fund to pay people who assault cops… utterly stupid, morally wrong.”
Blanche, who is the point man for selling both grifts, has a memory problem. He apparently thinks he is still Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney (his client was convicted on 34 felony counts) and not the nation’s attorney-general.
Trump has been very effective in mobilizing his MAGA base to punish his Republican critics and foes, or those who are just loyal but not sufficiently sycophantic.
Another scalp on his belt is that of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), a fiercely independent libertarian who lost his bid for an eighth term in the most expensive US House primary in history. He was the top target of Trump and AIPAC. Pro-Israel groups, led by AIPAC, spent $9 million to defeat a persistent critic of the Jewish state. Trump was seething at him for leading the fight to release the Epstein files.
The real reason for spending so many millions to defeat Massie wasn’t simply to get rid of this meddlesome politician but to strike fear in the hearts of those who may think of showing a streak of independence.
The insurrectionist slush fund, the billionaires’ ballroom, the Arc de Trump, the Iran war, the threat to make Cuba his next Venezuela, Trump’s grift and family enrichment, and most of all, the cost of living for ordinary Americans will test Congressional Republicans when they return from their latest vacation to take up the president’s agenda.
The greatest threat facing Trump is not that Republicans will find their backbones and tell him “no” but that voters in November will.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.