Around this time four years ago, with Democrats in control of the White House, Senate and House, party leaders were well on their way to passing the American Rescue Plan, which helped turn the economy around after the 2020 recession. The legislative drive wasn’t effortless, but by mid-February 2021, a Democratic budget resolution had already passed both chambers.
Four years later, it’s Republicans enjoying control of the White House and Capitol Hill, with major legislative ambitions of their own. Their efforts, however, aren’t going especially well.
It wasn’t long after Election Day 2024 when GOP officials began preliminary discussions about the scope and scale of the party’s congressional agenda. Republicans knew they would rely on the budget reconciliation process — a process that would allow GOP senators to circumvent Democrats and pass a bill through majority rule — but they also knew they had a myriad of tactical and substantive variables to consider.
The more Republican officials tried to settle on a solution, the more the party struggled to overcome its divisions. Many GOP senators endorsed a two-bill approach, the first of which would focus primarily on border security and give the White House an early victory, to be followed by a second bill prioritizing economy policy and tax cuts. Many House Republicans, meanwhile, demanded a one-bill approach — a “big, beautiful bill” — encompassing nearly all of Trump’s top legislative priorities.
As the intraparty fissures deepened, it became increasingly obvious that congressional leaders would need the president to help resolve the differences and negotiate a deal that Republican officials in both chambers could live with.
It also became increasingly obvious that Trump didn’t want to play such a role.
About a week before his second inaugural, Trump met with House GOP lawmakers, who hoped to get some guidance on the budget fight. It was a bust: As The New York Times reported, Trump “equivocated and sent mixed signals.” The article added, “It was a familiar reprise for Republican leaders who were around during Mr. Trump’s first term to experience how his changing moods, shifting priorities and flashes of rage could sap their leverage and derail even their best-laid plans.”
Soon after, he also met with Senate Republicans and sounded an “agnostic” note about the process.
The day after Inauguration Day, the new president huddled again with GOP lawmakers and again failed to offer any meaningful direction. The same week, Trump sat down in the Oval Office with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, who asked about the party’s legislative plans.
“I don’t care as long as we get to the final answer,” the president said. “I like the concept of that one bill — I guess I said one big beautiful and that’s what everyone says. … I do like that concept. It could be something else. It could be a smaller bill and a big bill.”
This, naturally, only fueled more intraparty chaos.
Two weeks later, Trump held yet another meeting with Republican members of Congress, and this time, the president sketched out several trillion dollars’ worth of tax cuts that he expected them to pass. He did not, however, offer any guidance on the differences between the House’s and the Senate’s preferred legislative strategy. Last week, at long last, Trump picked a side: As Senate Republicans prepared to advance their own budget plan, the president denounced their proposal and endorsed the one-bill strategy backed by House Republicans. That announcement came on Wednesday. On Friday, just two days later, as Politico reported, Trump started equivocating again. Donald Trump is continuing to complicate the path forward for congressional Republicans, who are desperate for clarity on what the president wants them to do to enact his massive domestic agenda. In comments on Brian Kilmeade’s radio show Friday, Trump openly entertained a notion that the GOP’s efforts to extend expiring tax cuts with new policies on border security and energy production may need to be broken up into smaller bills to clear Congress.
In other words, congressional Republicans waited for presidential leadership for months on the party’s legislative agenda; Trump finally made a decision that cut Senate GOP leaders off at the knees; and the president hedged on his own policy 48 hours later, creating a new round of uncertainty. There’s room for debate as to why Trump refuses to help lead his own party, but given his record, it’s not because he’s struggling to decide between two competing ideas. Rather, it’s easier to believe that he’s failed to help congressional Republicans because the president knows effectively nothing about legislating, policymaking and governing. To be sure, GOP leaders might somehow manage to overcome their difficulties and pass a bill or two anyway. But if they do, it will be despite Trump’s efforts, not because of them.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
