Republicans fear their ‘big win’ may actually be a ticking ‘time bomb’: report
The Republican Party’s sweeping electoral victories that secured them a rare trifecta of the federal government could prove to be a double-edged sword that comes back to haunt them in 2026.
That’s according to a new report in Axios, which detailed the anxiety Republicans on Capitol Hill are beginning to sense in congressional districts across the nation as backlash to the Trump administration’s slashing of federal programs and personnel becomes painfully obvious.
And the early opposition just weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term could get in the way of their legislative plan, the report added.
"It could be trouble,” one moderate Republican told Axios when speaking about political concerns surrounding the party’s main legislative priorities. "We saw what happened in 2018," the lawmaker added about the midterm year where voter anger over the GOP’s legislative agenda helped fuel a Democratic resurgence that flipped more than 40 House seats, the publication said.
After hours of dramatic vote-wrangling, House Republicans passed their budget framework on Tuesday. But some Republicans in vulnerable districts quickly distanced themselves from the budget "win," seeing it more as a ticking "time bomb," according to Axios.
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"Last night's vote was just a procedural step to start federal budget negotiations and does NOT change any current laws," Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) said in a statement Wednesday morning.
Another GOP lawmaker, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), claimed in a CNN interview that the resolution made “zero mention of cutting Medicaid,” despite it mandating the Energy and Commerce Committee to identify $880 billion in cuts over the next decade, which would likely have to come from Medicaid.
The concerns come as GOP lawmakers have been berated at town halls across the country by constituents angry about the assault on the federal government ushered in by Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“Most of the concern now is over ... DOGE," said a second House Republican who spoke anonymously to Axios, "but there's also, maybe not too far behind that, the message that they are trying to get across on reconciliation."
Democrats, meanwhile, are "eager to exploit Republicans' struggles as the process of crafting the final package begins," according to the report.
"Health care's gone for everyone ... we just won back the House," Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) is quoted as saying.
Trump’s pick for US Navy’s No. 2 once said ‘witchcraft’ had ‘taken over’ California city
President Donald Trump's effort to overhaul the federal government now features a retired Navy captain and twice failed Congressional candidate who surmised that witches had "taken over" Monterey, California.
Hung Cao lost his 2022 bid for the House of Representatives in Virginia's 10th Congressional District, then lost his Senate campaign last year to incumbent Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine.
A staunch ally of Trump, Cao was rewarded Thursday with a top position in the Navy.
"I am pleased to announce that Hung Cao will be our next United States Under Secretary of the Navy," Trump said on his Truth Social account. "Hung is the embodiment of the American Dream. As a refugee to our Great Nation, Hung worked tirelessly to make proud the Country that gave his family a home. He went to our amazing United States Naval Academy, and later earned his Master’s Degree in Physics. Hung served in combat as a Special Operations Officer for twenty five years. With Hung’s experience both in combat, and in the Pentagon, he will get the job done."
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Cao has a long history of peddling conspiracy theories and outright falsehoods, many of which became the focus of attacks by Democrats in his failed campaigns. This includes accusations he denigrated NATO employees as "lazy" and compared abortion to the horrors of the Holocaust.
"The Nazis did this. They’ll take Jewish babies and just take the legs and just smash the babies and kill them. You think that can’t happen in this country?" he said at a campaign rally, according to The Washington Post.
Additionally, he said witches have taken hold in Monterey, California.
"There’s a place in Monterey, California called Lovers Point. The original name was Lovers of Christ Point, but now it’s become, they took out the ‘Christ,’ it’s Lovers Point and it's really, Monterey is a very dark place now, with a lot of witchcraft and the Wiccan community has really taken over and we can’t let that happen in Virginia,” Cao said.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow warns Trump may ‘effectively declare war’ on US after looming ruling
The stark possibility of President Donald Trump potentially ignoring a court order sparked by his administration’s foreign aid freeze could explode into a full-on constitutional crisis — “and effectively end the republic,” Rachel Maddow said Thursday night as she delivered an ominous warning to viewers.
“They have been joking about this and making, you know, macho sounding bluffs about this for a long time now – particularly from the vice president – J.D. Vance,” Maddow said Thursday. “How is the Supreme Court going to deal with it now that it's real?”
The MSNBC host delved into possible scenarios in the opening minutes of her top-rated show that could develop depending on how the Supreme Court weighs in on the very real prospect that Trump could openly defy a court order – what she described as a “very scary issue.”
The high court, whose ultra-conservative majority was hand selected by Trump, is set to take up the case Friday at the request of government attorneys eager to find a way out of U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s order to unfreeze funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.
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“Do they try to give him what he wants from the courts so that Trump doesn't break that glass? Doesn't, you know, smash through the brightest bright line that we have and effectively end the republic?” she pondered. “Do they appease him because they – ‘oh, he's so scary, we better not make him defy a court order – we better make sure all court orders go his way.’”
She continued to preview the impending Supreme Court showdown by imagining an alternate situation where the justices use the opportunity “to make clear to him that his powers as president actually don't allow him to defy the court.”
“Do they tell him that if he does try to defy the courts, he is effectively declaring war on the United States of America? We'll see,” she added.
Maddow told viewers to keep their “eyes wide open on that and take it with all the seriousness it deserves.”
Watch the clip below or at this link:
