Republican lawmakers have occasionally spoken out against President Trump's expansive use of executive power, but will the trend continue?
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The Republican-controlled House and Senate have done little to stand in the way of President Trump, even as his actions have encroached on the territory reserved for them by the Constitution. But as NPR Congressional reporter Sam Greenglass reports, there are signs that some Republican lawmakers are trying to reassert their independence.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: When news broke last week that the Pentagon had carried out a second strike on two people on a near-destroyed suspected drug-trafficking ship in the Caribbean, even some Republicans expressed alarm.
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TOM TILLIS: Someone made a terrible decision. Someone needs to be held accountable.
GRINGLAS: This is North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis.
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TILLIS: That's our job. This is part of our supervision. It's pretty simple.
GRINGLAS: The strikes aren't the only actions that have prompted a handful of Republicans to express some clarity about the Trump administration. Some have criticized Trump's tariffs…
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SUSAN COLLINS: Our lobster fishermen, our blueberry growers, our potato farmers will pay for this.
GRINGLAS: …Inaction on expiring health care subsidies…
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JOSHUA HAWLEY: We're looking at a massive crisis if Congress doesn't act.
GRINGLAS: …The proposed peace plan for Ukraine…
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DON BACON: It is unconservative to appease Putin, just as it is unconservative to have no moral clarity about who is to blame for this war.
GRINGLAS: …Trump's attempts to eliminate the filibuster…
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JOHN KENNEDY: You had to smoke magic weed to vote for it.
GRINGLAS: …And his reluctance to release the Epstein files.
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MARJORIE GREEN: And he called me a traitor for supporting these women.
GREENGLAS: That was Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Before her were Senator John Kennedy, Congressman Don Bacon and Senators Josh Hawley and Susan Collins.
After months of the White House pressuring Congress on tariffs, appropriations and military intervention, even this cautious resistance is a departure, says former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona. He says the shift is accelerating as Trump's approval ratings decline and following Republicans' poor performance in last month's off-year elections.
JEFF FLAKE: There was a lot of concern about what he might do to you in the election. It's decreasing.
GRINGLAS: Flake, who didn't run for re-election in 2018 in part because he refused to back Trump unconditionally, says some lawmakers are now more willing to say out loud what they've long said behind closed doors.
FLAKE: Obviously behind the scenes it's a different game.
GRINGLAS: But this isn't the first time watchdogs have declared a new era only for Trump to tighten Republican control in Congress – such as after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
FLAKE: Yes, that's fair. I think many of us were wrong about how long it lasted.
GRINGLAS: And most of the Republicans who express their differences are retiring, representing competitive congressional districts or are longtime moderates. One of those centrists, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, says Congress has made several recent attempts to push back against the White House, such as resolutions on tariffs and boat strikes, but they have been neither successful nor sufficient.
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LISA MURKOWSKI: I would like to see more myself, and I believe that if we don't stand up for our powers under the Constitution, no one else will.
GRINGLAS: The Framers gave Congress the power to appropriate funds, declare war, and levy taxes such as tariffs. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune says it's unfair to say Congress has abdicated its authority as an independent, co-equal branch of government.
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JOHN THUNE: I don't know how different it is. Often, if I have disagreements with the administration, I do not dispute them publicly. But I think we have a responsibility as partners to try to implement the agenda for the American people that they voted for.
GREENGLAS: Molly Reynolds, an expert on Congress at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, says it's true that this is not just a Trump-era phenomenon. Congress has ceded power to the executive and judicial branches for decades.
MOLLY REYNOLDS: And in some cases, Congress has willingly and actively participated in sacrificing its power to other branches of government.
GRINGLAS: Reynolds says it didn't start with Trump's willingness to act more unilaterally in his second term, but it did exacerbate the trend. Speaker Mike Johnson recently told “The Katie Miller Podcast” that, quote, “we have a joke about how I'm not really the Speaker of the House.” Reynolds says there are precedents for Congress taking steps to restore its power, such as the Watergate-era reforms that limited the power of the president.
REYNOLDS: It was a very different political moment than the one we're living in now.
GRINGLAS: First, the parties are more polarized, so Reynolds says it's hard to imagine a similar campaign in Congress to regain power right now.
Sam Greenglass, NPR News, Washington.
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