Trump keeps turning Republican wins into loyalty tests, GOP liabilities
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press with Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota as he heads to a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2026.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump returns to a string of Republican victories Critics say it has complicated the GOP’s efforts to show voters they can govern as it heads into the July 4 congressional recess, creating political headaches for its own party.
Over the past two weeks, Trump delayed the selection of his own national intelligence director, effectively derailing talks on a key expiring foreign surveillance program, then on Wednesday canceled at the last minute a plan to sign a bipartisan housing bill aimed at making it affordable.
He has repeatedly pressed Senate Republicans to clear the way for a voter ID and noncitizen voting bill that lacks the votes to pass. Even the Iran peace deal has become difficult for some Republicans to defend, amid complaints that Congress has been left in the dark and the White House has demanded $87.6 billion in payments for the war. And Trump is returning to the pool renovation, which has frequently failed in recent public statements.
The fallout spread across Capitol Hill. In response to the dysfunction, the Senate started its July 4 recess early and left town Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, the House is paralyzed as conservatives take Trump’s mandate and refuse to vote on GOP priorities until the election bill, the RELIEVE America Act, is passed. Councilors also returned to their districts early, but are due back next week.
What could have been a Republican victory lap on Wednesday — a bipartisan housing bill that would rein in private capital and increase housing supply and affordability — descended into chaos.
The sections are not the same. But they point to a pattern: Republicans are closing in on victory. Trump is turning this into a loyalty test. The win turns into another fight.
Some Republicans are now saying this openly.
R-Neb. “It was devastating,” Rep. Don Bacon said of Trump’s handling of the housing bill. “There was a good bill that he could sign and couldn’t afford to win.”
Bacon said Trump acted “suddenly” and “easily” and complicated the bill, which was “a win for Congress and himself.”
“It was a mistake,” Bacon told CNBC on Thursday.
In response to a request for comment Thursday, the White House referred to comments the president made in the Oval Office on Wednesday night. After meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte, Trump defended his decision to halt the housing bill and harshly criticized Democrats for opposing the SAVE America Act. He said “we’re doing very well” on affordability and that his administration has “cut prices a lot.”
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who also sponsored the housing bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, said the frustration among Republicans is real.
“85% of House members who voted supported it. 90% of Senate members who voted supported it,” Fitzpatrick told CNBC. “You wouldn’t recognize this from the name of a post office, let alone a comprehensive housing affordability package.”
Fitzpatrick said the episode was “yet another example of the president using New York real estate tactics as leverage to obtain other concessions.”
“Of course it’s frustrating,” Fitzpatrick said.
Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) attends a press conference in favor of the proposed “SAVE America Act”, which would require proof of US citizenship when registering to vote and photo identification to vote, at the US Capitol on March 18, 2026 in Washington, DC, USA.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Cracks in Congress
Not all congressional Republicans are upset about the president’s recent actions. Speaker of the Assembly Mike Johnson, R-La., in particular, backed the president and met with Trump at the White House on Thursday afternoon. Later Thursday, he forwarded the housing bill to the White House; it’s a procedural step that could lead to Trump signing the legislation, vetoing it, or having it automatically become law without his signature.
Conservative members of the House of Representatives echoed Trump, saying they would not support any legislation until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act, the conservative election bill that emerged from the lower chamber in February.
“The President did the right thing yesterday by canceling the signing of the bill unless the SAVES Act was added,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said in reference to the housing bill at a Liberty Caucus press conference Thursday morning. “Personally, I don’t think we should introduce any more legislation until the Senate comes back into session. And ironically, they’ll be out for two weeks.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who led the GOP’s House blockade as a proponent of the SAVE America Act, similarly suggested the bill be added to larger, must-pass legislation such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or the National Defense Authorization Act.
But doing so could jeopardize both laws.
A key part of FISA, the spying bill that allows the United States to spy on people outside the United States, including when they interact with Americans, expired earlier this month amid opposition to Democrats’ pick for Trump’s interim national intelligence director, Bill Pulte.
Pulte leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency and is a staunch ally of Trump. Trump’s willingness to use his place at the top of the FHFA to investigate his opponents has raised concerns among Democrats and some Republicans in Congress.
In response to these concerns, Trump appointed Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, as the permanent DNI, and lawmakers sought to expedite the nomination process. But hours before Clayton was to testify before Congress last week, Trump made a new attempt to introduce the SAVE America Act, saying on Truth Social that Clayton should stay home.
Democrats, meanwhile, seized on Trump’s handling of the housing bill as evidence that the president doesn’t care about affordability; It is the most important issue heading into the 2026 midterm elections, where Republicans are trying to win narrow majorities in both the House and Senate.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, D-Wash. “Voters have seen this over and over again and that he doesn’t care,” Rep. Suzan DelBene told CNBC. “That’s why they’re demanding better representation and a huge reason why we need to take back the House of Representatives.”
Brittany MartinezA former aide to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and executive director of Principles First, which positions itself as an alternative to the Conservative Political Action Conference, said Trump’s recent actions lack “strategic discipline.”
“Republicans had an opportunity to talk about affordability and housing (issues that voters really care about) and instead the story became about Trump canceling the housing vote, muddying the waters around his own intelligence pick, and introducing further instability into the FISA negotiations,” Martinez told CNBC.
“If Republicans continue to ignore or downplay the affordability crisis rather than address it, voters will notice,” he said.
“Since Democrats don’t control both branches of Congress, Trump doesn’t have a strong enemy, so he appears to be picking fights within his party,” said Matt Dallek, a George Washington University professor who studies the modern conservative movement.
“When it comes to midterm messaging, Republican infighting could cause the party to lose focus and lose sight of the real prize: control of Congress,” Dallek said.
National Guard members patrol near fencing installed around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 2026.
Tyler M. Andrews | Washington Post | Getty Images
vanity projects
The problems are not limited to Capitol Hill. Trump has spent much of his political capital rebuilding Washington’s most visible civic spaces around his image.
In recent weeks, Trump has focused on: The reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial follows controversy over adding his name to the Kennedy Center and Trump ordering a ballroom to be built at the White House before running into legal trouble.
Trump personally pushed to renovate the reflecting pool ahead of America’s 250th birthday, including ordering that the bottom of the pool be painted in what he called “American flag blue.” The project was intended to be a patriotic showcase and a visible symbol of national renewal.
Instead, it turned into another political headache. After renovations went more than $4 million over budget, the pool experienced algae blooms and the new coating was peeling, according to federal contracts. Trump blamed unnamed vandals, claimed people were damaging the ship, said arrests had been made, and ordered the pool to be fenced.
“This is a waste of taxpayer money… how much more money is it going to cost to fix a problem that didn’t exist in the first place?” Martinez said. in question MS NOW on Tuesday. “He can’t fix the algae, so he threatens me with handcuffs.”
Democrats also seized on the incident to question the administration’s competence and demand answers about the contracts, costs, and execution of the project.
—Emily Wilkins contributed to this report.
