Trump takes a beating from GOP amid Epstein files and tariffs rebuke

President Donald Trump’s tight grip on the Republican Party may be starting to loosen a bit.

The few elected Republicans who regularly oppose him, including Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, are more vocal than ever. And it came to light in recent days between the president and a handful of his top supporters in Congress.

While Trump, the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, struggles with stubbornly low approval ratings, the apparent shift continues. especially regarding the economyHis election is a perennial issue, made all the more important to Americans upset by high prices.

Six U.S. House Republicans voted this week to repeal Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Tillis remained committed to delaying the president’s nomination to chair the Fed in protest of the Justice Department’s investigation into the current investigation. The administration has rolled back a sustained crackdown on anti-immigration law enforcement in Minnesota. And the ramifications of the Epstein files, which Trump and his allies mentioned, are troubling the world and its most powerful players.

Democrats are jumping on the opening, and some are pushing a narrative like this: “the tide is turning“About Trump. The perceived momentum followed massive victories in last fall’s off-year elections after he delivered an affordable message and prediction markets We support them winning control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections.

“Trump’s grip on power is slipping,” the representative said. Jim McGovernD-Mass., D-Mass., said in a laudatory social media post Thursday. “Nobody’s buying their bulls; it’s somehow driving the prices down for the families.”

The administration’s efforts this week to disrupt the affordability narrative by drawing attention to Trump’s drug pricing initiatives, gains in the stock market or predictions that Americans’ tax refunds will rise this season have been clouded by political setbacks and controversy. On Friday, Trump offered a tentative glimpse into halting price increases when he spoke to troops in North Carolina just hours after the release of January consumer price index figures showing inflation slowing.

He has appeared less publicly since a racist social media post last Friday; It was a change from the recent pace of appearing in the Oval Office in front of reporters alongside supporters from the political ranks and the business world. Although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is Trump’s frequent press conference partner, no public statements were made during his visit to the White House this week.

When asked about the Republican Party’s challenges to Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the party will remain with the president as its leader.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Republicans will remain united against radical Democrats who, if given the opportunity, will once again destroy our country with wide open borders, non-citizen voting in elections, and terrible economic policy,” Leavitt said via email.

The GOP House majority vote to override Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods came as three Republican members previously sided with Democrats to defeat a rule that would have blocked House votes on Trump’s tariffs until July. Trump’s threats of retaliation did not prevent the final outcome.

While the tariff votes were almost entirely symbolic, they show that GOP leadership has failed to prevent enough members from publicly challenging Trump on private economic policy. Republicans can afford to lose just one vote in the House to gain the upper hand in party-line votes.

A day after the tax vote in the House of Representatives, U.S. border czar Tom Homan announced that the government would complete a “surge” of immigration enforcement in Minnesota following public outcry over aggressive tactics by federal agents, exacerbated by the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

a new AP-NORC poll Most Americans think the administration’s deployment of deportation powers has gone too far and that the GOP’s advantage on immigration has diminished since last year.

The Minnesota actions drew harsh reactions not only from protesters and Democrats, but also from business owners. One open letter In a report shared Thursday, more than 266 businesses across the U.S. that say they represent 100,000 people warned that government actions threaten free markets.

A series of other Trump-related stumbles has diverted national attention away from his attempt to tout the administration’s accomplishments.

Last week, the president’s social media account posted a racist image depicting the Obamas as monkeys. Multiple Republicans spoke out strongly and quickly against the post, including Trump’s close ally, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Senate Republican, who called the post “the most racist thing I’ve ever seen in the White House.”

The White House initially defended the post, but after bipartisan outrage, directed the blame to an unnamed employee. Trump later condemned the image but refused to apologize.

A federal grand jury this week rejected an attempt by U.S. prosecutors to indict six Democratic lawmakers, weeks after Trump charged them with sedition for telling military members not to obey illegal orders. like that extremely unusual For grand juries to reject indictments.

The Justice Department is also in the midst of a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose refusal to quickly cut interest rates has made him the biggest target of Trump’s ire.

The investigation, which Powell said was retaliatory, sparked a vocal outcry from Republicans concerned about the erosion of the central bank’s long-established independence.

Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his current term, is blocking all of the Trump administration’s Fed nominees — including Powell’s replacement, Kevin Warsh — from advancing in the Senate until the Justice Department drops the investigation.

The president said Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-loyal U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, should continue the investigation until it is completed.

Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said he did not believe Powell committed a crime; Trump, for his part, has repeatedly complained about cost overruns on building renovations, claiming Powell is either corrupt or grossly incompetent. According to Tillis, most Republicans on the banking panel agree that Powell did not commit a crime.

Trump is also grappling with the fallout from the Justice Department’s release of millions of files on notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, which is intensifying just days after the latest revelations. Trump had opposed a bill that would force the Justice Department to share its files publicly, but reversed course as a growing number of Republicans were prepared to vote for it.

Newly released records revealed ties between Epstein and administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who admitted to visiting Epstein’s island for lunch with his family in 2012.