In the last year and a half, Donald Trump could practically do whatever he wanted, the Republican majority in Congress did not stand in his way. They feared for their careers from the president’s political revenge, and their physical integrity from Trump’s supporters who do not shy away from violence. But in recent weeks, cracks have appeared in the congressional shield that protects the president, after Trump’s actions and decisions angered enough Republican senators and representatives for Congress to oppose him.
This also required the unpopular Iran war, which the president launched without consulting Congress. In vain he has been promising for weeks that they are for days since its closure and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, attacks continue to occur, and the strait remains impassable. The economic effects of this are a growing concern for the Republican Party, which is preparing for the upcoming congressional elections. Congress stood on its heels in several matters important to the White House, and the Democrats, with Republican support, can say no to a president who is already extremely unpopular outside of the Republican voting base.
They voted against the Iran war
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives with the support of four Republican representatives, 215-208 voted a resolution directing the president to withdraw troops from the Iran war or seek congressional authorization to continue the war. The legislation now heads to the Senate, where two weeks earlier, Democrats passed a similar resolution in their eighth attempt after four renegade Republican senators joined them.
A law passed in 1973 requires US presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops in armed conflict, which can last up to sixty days without congressional authorization. These sixty days expired on May 1st. In mid-May, the House of Representatives failed to pass the resolution to end the war by just one vote, and a week later it was clear that the Republican leadership was in trouble after a vote on it was prevented from taking place. We wrote more about this in this article.
However, they could not drag out the vote any longer, and it was confirmed on Wednesday that their concerns were not unfounded. The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, tried to convince the Republican representatives before the vote that the decision would weaken the president’s negotiating position, which is a “very dangerous possibility”, but he was unsuccessful.
The resolution alone will not end the Iran war, and Trump would almost certainly veto any law that would oblige him to do so, or prevent it through litigation, relying on the conservative-majority Supreme Court. The vote was still a strong signal. Two of the four representatives who voted with the Democrats on the issue are preparing for a difficult election against their Democratic opponent. In other words, their decision indicates that some representatives, driven by selfish political considerations, are able to oppose the president, whose popularity outside the Republican Party has sunk to a low point.
“People are fed up with five dollar gas, six dollar diesel, and fertilizer that we can’t afford to put on our farmland in Kentucky.” he said Rep. Thomas Massie, who previously opposed Trump on several issues as the only Republican, says that the House of Representatives is “fed up with this war.” Massie has nothing to lose either, Trump supported his rival in the primaries, from whom he also lost.
Signs protesting fuel prices and the war outside the US Capitol on May 20, 2026 – Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll/Getty Images
They got into saying no
On another issue on Wednesday they went opposite Republican representatives with party leadership and the White House when with Democrats voted A draft law was forwarded to a vote by a vote of 218-204. It would punish Russia with new sanctions, as well as one billion dollars in military aid and an eight billion dollar loan to Ukraine. On this issue, six Republican representatives and one independent representative, who typically votes with the Republicans, sided with the Democrats.
The bill sat in the Foreign Affairs Committee for more than a year after the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives refused to bring it to a vote. In the end, the Democrats took advantage of a procedural rule to force the draft to go before the House of Representatives, which still needs to be voted on by the House of Representatives and the Senate, and Trump, who previously opposed giving new aid to Ukraine, can veto it.
This was not the end of Trump’s streak on Wednesday: several Republican senators had strong words against Bill Pulte, the candidate for the vacant post of director of national intelligence. As head of the state’s home loan regulator, the wealthy businessman has become known for using his position as Trump’s political vendetta campaign and has no intelligence experience at all. There is no chance that the Senate will approve his appointment, he stated Republican Senator Thom Tillis. Senators John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy have both spoken out that he is unfit for the job, and even Senate Republican Leader John Thune has expressed doubts.
The nomination also comes at the worst possible time, when the Senate is due to vote anyway on an extension of an intelligence law that allows for wiretapping without a court warrant, and which cannot be passed without Democratic support. Tillis highlighted this, stating that he was tired of being an amateur. And he also stated that he feels that the president is receiving advice “as if there were no elections in November”, referring to the congressional elections due at that time, where the Democrats not only have a chance to gain a majority in the House of Representatives, but the narrow, three-member majority of the Republicans in the Senate may also be in danger.
They also said no to Trump’s favorite projects
Also Wednesday, Republican senators released $1 billion in funding for the real estate developer-turned-politician’s project closest to the president’s heart, his proposed White House ballroom. The money was originally supposed to be included in the ICE and Border Patrol budget legislation, but it ended up being voted on Wednesday without it, after it became clear that several Republican senators would vote no if it included $1 billion for the ballroom.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said that people can barely afford “grocery, gas and medical care, and then we give a billion dollars for a ballroom? By the way, the president has vowed to use private donations” to build the ballroom, he said. it’s true last August when he announced the construction of the ballroom, Trump really promised that. Last October they began to dismantle it almost secretly the east wing and started construction, which was stopped by a judge in March this year. Designed under the ballroom bunker system however, he allowed its construction. Republicans suggested in May that they would give one billion dollars in public money for this. Now this money has been taken from him.
Donald Trump speaks to the press next to the White House ballroom under construction, May 19, 2026 – Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
But not only this money. Responding to the outrage of Republican senators, the Trump administration on Tuesday announcedthat he will not create the $1.776 billion fund that would have been used to compensate Donald Trump’s supporters who, in his judgment, were persecuted by the authorities on political grounds. For example, the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, led by Trump’s lies about election fraud and armed at the outspoken urging of the fallen president, to prevent Joe Biden’s victory from being declared. The $1.776 billion fund would have been created as part of an out-of-court settlement that ended the lawsuit filed by Donald Trump with the US IRS, i.e. legal experts characterization practically against himself.
The idea caused a huge outrageeven among Republican senators. In the American press appeared reports according to more than half of the Republican senators expressed their concerns, several openly called it absurd, stupid and immoral. John Thune also spoke on Monday that it would be best if the Trump administration revoked it itself.
As with the nomination of the new director general of national security, the president also chose the timing of the announcement of the establishment of a fund to compensate the rioters extremely poorly. The congress would have voted precisely on the budget of the immigration police. Senators can submit any additions to the legislation. The Democrats immediately pounced on the opportunity and indicated that they would also put the ban on the fund to a vote in order to force the Republicans to take a public position. “The government announced it at the stupidest possible moment” – he said Matt Glassman, a Georgetown University congressional expert, told Vox.
Several Republican senators have indicated that they are not satisfied with the Trump administration’s promise to drop the idea of the fund, they also want to legislate to permanently ban its creation. They can rightly doubt the government’s promise, Trump himself did not say at all as if he had permanently abandoned the idea, which, according to his own admission, he “loves” and considers “very important”, and according to him, the lawyers will decide whether he has really abandoned it for good.
One of the supporters of the fund’s legal ban is Texas Senator John Cornyn, who lost his primary a few weeks earlier after Trump endorsed his opponent. Trump took revenge on him because Cornyn did not stand up for him on a few issues years earlier, and thus lost his trust. With this, however, he not only lost a senator who, in his opinion, was not loyal enough, but also gained a potential enemy for the coming months. Cornyn no longer has anything to fear from Trump’s revenge, and he has good reason to cross his political career-derailing president wherever he can. And you are not alone in this.
Senator Bill Cassidy also lost his primary election in the same way, and practically also Senator Tillis, who, sensing his loss, preferred not to run for re-election. But this week it was also proven that Trump can no longer influence the primaries 100 percent. Tuesday’s vote will decide the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Iowa despite that he got out Rep. Randy Feenstra that the president officially backed him last week.
In the meantime, the House of Representatives can decide on another draft law, with which they can also confront the president. Significantly in the draft legislation on the defense budget would limit the Pentagon’s withdrawal of troops from Europe. This is necessary because at the beginning of May, Trump started threatening to withdraw thousands of American soldiers from Europe, which worried not only Democrats, but Republican representatives and senators as well. “Many of our members feel very strongly about the European force,” he said American to the press a senior Republican congressional staffer. The armed forces committee of the House of Representatives will vote on the draft on Thursday.
