House Republicans begin to hit the panic button over an unhinged (and unpopular) Donald Trump
Even as one key group after another has lashed out at Donald Trump – from the judiciary branch, to American consumers, to Wall Street – we’ve seen House Republicans support Trump in lock step. But Trump’s approval rating is historically low, and voters from both parties are now expressing outrage at what Trump is doing. Earlier this month I wrote that we should watch closely for signs that House Republicans might start looking to put their own selfish interests ahead of Trump. Now we’re seeing it begin to happen.
Each time House Republicans have held town halls, they’ve faced massive backlash from attendees – including from Republican voters. It’s gotten so bad that a number of House Republicans have stopped holding town halls altogether. But this has resulted in negative headlines about how they’re not doing their jobs, and so some of them have crossed their fingers and tepidly tried holding town halls again.
This includes House Republican Celeste Maloy, who faced such pushback at her latest town hall that she ended up caving to the audience’s opinion. She acknowledged that the United States is headed for authoritarianism “if we don’t get the executive branch under control.” Of course these are mere words, and Republicans are never to be taken at their word. But it does provide some insight into how House Republicans now view the conundrum in front of them. They’re desperate to keep their own seats in the midterms, and they’re beginning to figure out that they may have to turn somewhat against an unpopular Trump if they want any chance of winning next year.
It’s also notable that Maloy represents a right wing district in Utah where the Republican always wins by about twenty points. Maloy would be among the least likely of House Republicans to lose their seats. Yet even she sees Trump’s toxic unpopularity as a problem for her. But when her own Republican voters are showing up to her town halls enraged at her for not holding Trump accountable, it’s not difficult to figure out why it’s a problem.
