Questions about the post-Trump future of the Republican Party are getting more and more pressing, with one USA Today reporter stressing that while the shape of the party going forward remains unclear, some lawmakers are “absolutely” drifting away from the president.
Zach Schermele, a congressional correspondent for USA Today, appeared as a guest on the Tuesday edition of the outlet’s podcast, “The Excerpt.” During the discussion, host Dana Taylor grilled him about the myriad ways in which Republicans in Washington seem to be breaking with President Donald Trump to a greater degree than at any other point in his second term.
Schermele called the pushback to Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general “one of the most notable signs of Republican pushback” to something Trump considered a “big priority,” though this was mostly the result of pushback from lawmakers leaving Congress soon due to conflicts with the president.
“John Cornyn, a Republican senator from Texas, and Tom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina, both really dug their heels in on two things, the so-called anti-weaponization fund that was set up by the Justice Department as part of an IRS settlement with the Trumps and a tax audit immunity deal that was the source of a lot of consternation within the Senate Republican Conference,” he explained. “And it was really a bridge too far for a lot of Senate Republicans that I spoke to both on the day that it was announced, the weaponization fund and continuing onward… And it was a testament to just how much a little bit of pushback, especially from a Senate Republican, can go.”
Taylor further questioned how much the “hesitant” reaction from some Republicans to Trump’s SAVE America Act, which would impose new voter ID requirements, reflected a “growing disconnect between the President and Congressional Republicans.”
“It absolutely does,” Schermele said. “And Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who is sort of on the outs with the President right now, although they both maintain that they have a good working relationship and Thune enjoys a lot of support within the Senate Republican Conference, he has said repeatedly that the votes just are not there in the Senate in order to pass the Save America Act.”
While these disagreements are becoming more numerous, Schermele stressed that the implications for the future remain unclear when asked about “early signs of a post-Trump Republican Party beginning to emerge,” adding that it would have to wait until after the midterms.
“I think that is the question that’s going to be explored increasingly over the course of the next two years, especially after the midterm elections and whether or not the President is able to retain control of both chambers of Congress,” he said. “I mean, functionally, because of the decisions that this President has made with respect to endorsing or not endorsing certain candidates and other broader changes that have happened in the makeup of Congress, he’s already sort of lost truly functioning majorities in both chambers. If he still had functioning majorities, he would’ve been able to pass these other priorities that he’s had for months now…”
He added: “And so the question over the course of the midterm elections and in the aftermath is going to be, what does the Republican Party look like post-Donald Trump? And is it something that Republicans are going to be running on the priorities that Donald Trump championed over the course of his first two years? Running on the Big, Beautiful Bill and other legislative wins in Congress, or are they going to be looking for areas in which they disagree with the President? But something that we have to keep in mind while having this conversation is that he still retains a broad amount of support among the base of the party and his endorsement is exceedingly powerful among Republicans up and down the ballot. And so the degree to which this party changes over the course of the next year or two is something that remains to be seen.”