Trump’s message to frustrated GOP lawmakers: 'I’m the president — and you’re not'

With the United States' 2026 midterms only four and one-half months away, many GOP strategists are sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump's weak approval ratings. And Trump's ceasefire deal with Iran is frustrating hawks in the Republican Party, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) — who declared that "Ronald Reagan is rolling over in his grave." But Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal, has a message for worried Republicans: "I'm the president, and you're not."

Journalists Brian Schwartz, Natalie Andrews and Alexander Ward, in the Journal, report that Trump used those words with GOP allies who "offered him strategic advice."

"Seventeen months into his second term," the WSJ reporters explain, "Trump is increasingly relying on his own gut instincts, dismissing the counsel of aides, conservative lawmakers and longtime associates. The result has been a series of decisions that have confounded and frustrated Republicans — heightening fears that voters will punish the GOP in the November elections and testing Trump's iron grip on the party."

In addition to frustrating hawkish GOP lawmakers with his Iran deal, Trump — Schwartz, Andrews and Ward note — "blew up the Senate's plans to quickly confirm a new intelligence chief and renew a critical spying law, preventing his own nominee from appearing at a confirmation hearing so that his acting pick for the job could serve in the role longer."

"For much of his second term," according to the WSJ reporters, "Trump has commanded unwavering control over his party, with few GOP politicians publicly raising opposition to his moves. But congressional Republicans, some of whom lost reelection bids after Trump endorsed their opponents, are increasingly offering blunt assessments of Trump's actions. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), who rarely criticized Trump in public, issued a statement Thursday raising objections to the preliminary agreement Trump signed with Iran, saying that it 'negotiates away the victories' of the war 'in ways that are completely out of step with the president's goals.' Trump has privately expressed frustration with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.), citing his inability to pass the voter-ID bill that the president has said is crucial to Republicans' winning the midterms."

Schwartz, Andrews and Ward add, "Trump has told allies he's sick of hearing 'no' from Thune, but the Senate leader has noted there simply isn't enough support in the Senate to move the voting legislation.

After Trump returned to the White House on January 20, 2025, Senate Republicans drew biting criticism from Democrats for voting to confirm Trump's most controversial nominees. But GOP consultant and former congressional aide Ron Bonjean believes that Trump's stranglehold on Republican lawmakers is slipping.

Bonjean told the Journal, "The total control that Trump once had over Congress just isn’t there anymore. His outspoken dismissal over Republican midterm election hopes and legislative demands that would place them in harm’s way of voters this November has dampened the relationship."

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