WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump’s dream came true when Republicans swept control of the House and Senate in the 2024 election, setting up a favorable path for his legislative agenda.
But he could get pushback from a minority of members in his own party, who will likely seek to poke holes in his long to-do list.
As members returned to session this week, snapshots of this opposition crept up in GOP leadership fights, Trump’s closed-door meeting with Republican House members and his picks for cabinet roles, giving a preview of what the next few years could look like.
Standing outside the Hyatt Regency Washington hotel on Wednesday, for instance, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., knocked House Speaker Mike Johnson’s foreign policy and labeled him a “neocon” – even after Trump had endorsed Johnson for another term to lead the chamber.
And Trump’s selection of now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., as attorney general prompted immediate backlash and doubt from some Republican senators – including Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, who have long bucked Trump – and even others up for reelection in 2026 such as Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
“I would think that he’s probably got some work cut out for him to get a good, strong vote,” Tillis told reporters, not immediately agreeing to confirm Gaetz.
Even amid a unified GOP government, Trump will have to face these intraparty detractors when he begins his second term in January.
The moderates and ultraconservatives
Vulnerable House Republicans who won in tight races this year, including Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Michael Lawler of New York, and David Valadao of California, were critical to the party retaining control of the House.
Those lawmakers will likely take a more moderate policy approach against Trump’s more partisan agenda as they eye the 2026 midterms – when all House seats are up for reelection and the party in power historically has faced defeat.
Bacon previously drew Trump’s ire after voting in support of President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in 2021. He criticized Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, and voted in support of an independent commission to investigate the riot – which Trump objected to.
“No good comment,” Bacon told reporters when asked about Trump’s selection of Gaetz, who was the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation for sexual misconduct.
Lawler told USA TODAY he would be “more than willing and able to speak out and do what I think is in the best interest of my own district, my constituents.”
“When I agree with the president, I’ll say it. If I disagree on something, I will say that, too,” he said in a telephone interview.
Lawler knocked his own party last year for derailing a funding plan to avoid a government shutdown, calling for bipartisanship. He said one of his priorities in January will be lifting the cap on state and local tax deductions, which Trump had previously signed into law in 2017 but also vowed to lift.
“In order to get a tax bill passed through, especially through reconciliation, folks are going to need my vote,” Lawler said.