The GOP Finally Rejects Trump by Russell Berman
On some level, this vote was about conservatives in Congress returning
to their Tea Party roots, standing up against a Big Government deal that
would rip up the Budget Control Act of 2011—perhaps the signal victory
of the right’s anti-spending push in the Barack Obama era. Yet what makes
this vote peculiar is that it’s hard to read it as anything other than
a rebuke of Trump, even as the same lawmakers who have led the charge
against the budget deal have risen to the president’s defense against
all manner of alleged transgressions. It’s the latest sign of tensions
among Republicans in Washington that have recently bubbled to the surface.
“This is a bad deal for the president. It’s a bad deal for conservatives,”
wrote Representatives Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Jody Hice of Georgia,
and Warren Davidson of Ohio—all members of the House Freedom Caucus and
stalwart Trump backers—in a USA Today op-ed. “Most importantly, it’s a bad
deal for the forgotten men and women who voted to shake up Washington,
D.C. when they sent President Trump to the White House. This is not
draining the swamp—it’s feeding the swamp and entrenching the status quo.”
