President Donald Trump’s rampaging first 100 days in office have had a clarifying effect on Congress.
His all-combat approach and disregard for any power but his own has left Republicans falling in line, while galvanizing Democrats into all-out resistance, forcing them to adopt new tactics to keep up. The result is diminishing power on Capitol Hill and a widening partisan gap, with both parties on war footing in full support of, quiet acquiescence to, or fervent defiance of the all-consuming president.
Trump shows no signs of hitting the brakes, suggesting there will be few, if any, moments of bipartisan cooperation ahead in Congress, as Republicans aim to unilaterally advance his agenda this summer and Democrats put up all the fight they can, with an eye on a midterm reckoning in 2026.
More immediately, the building enmity portends an ugly showdown in the fall, when Congress will have to pass a new government funding package and the GOP will need some Democratic votes in the Senate.
Trump, who has almost entirely worked through executive power, has shown little interest in the details of legislating. While Hill Republicans had influence over policy and personnel in his first administration, this time they’ve largely been along for the ride. But at key moments his blunt force has imposed rare discipline as they’ve tried to pass a package of tax cuts and border security policies with only GOP votes and slender majorities.
“House Republicans, we have our leader, and that leader is our president, Donald Trump,” the House’s fourth-ranking Republican, Conference Chair Lisa McClain, (R-Mich.) said Tuesday.
Trump has helped the House GOP clear several early hurdles in their legislative push, despite having almost no margin for error in the House and significantly different political demands in the two chambers. Few Republicans will risk his wrath.
“This administration is constantly leading from the front, telling us what we need to get done,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a close Trump ally.
While Republicans see leadership, Democrats see subservience that has diminished Congress to near irrelevance.
“Donald Trump is crashing the economy and Republicans in Congress — these rubber-stamp Republicans — are actively letting it happen,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Monday.
Those who have broken with the administration in even small instances face intense pressure. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) this month told civic leaders in her home state “we are all afraid.”
She’s often “very anxious myself about using my voice, because retaliation is real,” she said, according to The Anchorage Daily News.
“He’s bullying people,” said Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.).
Democratic Life
The steamroller approach that has brought Republican obedience has also sparked new Democratic life.
The party entered Trump’s second term wounded and divided. Some, including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), suggested early on that after Trump won the national popular vote and every battleground state they should seek common ground where possible.
But after Trump took a maximalist approach on every front, and offered no outreach, Democrats have pivoted to fighting — urged on by a grassroots liberals desperate for signs of energy.
Slotkin recently announced a “war plan” to address the tactics and tone the party needs to take on the president.
“He clearly does not care, certainly about Congress, including the Republican leadership here, and he certainly doesn’t seem to care about what the courts tell him to do,” Slotkin said in an interview. “It is clear in his second administration that he just believes he’s the king of this country, and America has no damn king.”
The newfound urgency has accelerated the rise of a slew of new, younger Democratic voices and more unorthodox tactics as the party tries to counter a media-dominant president and its supporters seek fresh faces. It has also led to a decentralized push back from lawmakers experimenting with new methods.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) broke the record for longest Senate speech, and he and Jeffries on Sunday held a daylong social media video session on the Capitol steps. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have barnstormed the country with rallies, and others, including Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have traveled to Republican districts to hold town halls focused on countering Trump’s agenda, breaking from staid news conferences in the Capitol.
“The number of people that are seeing,” such events, Booker said, “is so much greater back in the days when it was just C-Span and whoever chose to carry it.”
But Democrats have few formal levers for slowing Trump, and that reality, combined with Republican loyalty, has opened an increasing role for the courts, not Congress, to shape the outcomes of public debates and set checks on the presidency, said Sarah Binder, who studies Congress at the Brookings Institution.
“There’s a bit of learned helplessness,” in both parties, Binder said.
Eyes on Elections
Both sides are already eyeing the 2026 midterms, when Democrats hope to win a foothold on power.
Jeffries this week highlighted a slew of polls showing Trump, and his agenda, increasingly unpopular with the public. And Democrats point to Republicans avoiding town halls or open public events, all to avoid the ire among some voters.
“The American people have said inside of 100 days, enough, this is a disaster,” Jeffries said.
Republicans say Democrats have shown they have no vision, only hatred for Trump.
“They are void of any ideas,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). “They’re just opposed to everything.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) predicted that the tax cuts the GOP hopes to pass by summer will boost the economy and leave voters “quite satisfied.”
Even that step, though, is likely to depend heavily on the president.
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