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The Republican-controlled House and Senate have not done much to stand in the way of President Trump, even when his actions have encroached on terrain that the Constitution reserves for them. But as NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas reports, there are signs that some Republican lawmakers are trying to reassert their independence.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: When news broke last week that the Pentagon carried out a second strike on two individuals on a largely destroyed alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, even some Republicans expressed alarm.
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THOM TILLIS: Somebody made a horrible decision. Somebody needs to be held accountable.
GRINGLAS: That's North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis.
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TILLIS: This is our job. This is part of our oversight. That's pretty straightforward.
GRINGLAS: The strikes are not the only actions that have spurred a handful of Republicans to express a little daylight with the Trump administration. Some have criticized Trump's tariffs...
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SUSAN COLLINS: Our lobstermen, our blueberry growers, our potato farmers will pay the price.
GRINGLAS: ...Inaction on expiring health subsidies...
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JOSHUA HAWLEY: We are looking at a massive crisis unless Congress acts.
GRINGLAS: ...A proposed Ukraine peace plan...
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DON BACON: It's not conservative to appease Putin, nor is it conservative to have a lack of moral clarity who's at fault of this war.
GRINGLAS: ...Trump's push to eliminate the filibuster...
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JOHN KENNEDY: You'd have to be smoking wizard weed to vote for that.
GRINGLAS: ...And his reluctance to release the Epstein files.
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MARJORIE GREENE: And he called me a traitor for standing with these women.
GRINGLAS: That was representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Before her, Senator John Kennedy, Congressman Don Bacon and Senators Josh Hawley and Susan Collins.
After months of the White House steamrolling Congress on tariffs, appropriations and military intervention, even this careful pushback is a departure, says former Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona. He says the shift is accelerating with Trump's declining approval rating and after Republicans' poor performance in off-year elections last month.
JEFF FLAKE: There was a lot of fear about what he could do to you electorally. That's diminishing.
GRINGLAS: Flake, who did not run for reelection in 2018 in part because he refused to unconditionally back Trump, says some lawmakers are now more willing to say aloud what they long expressed behind closed doors.
FLAKE: Obviously, it's - behind the scenes it's a whole different ballgame.
GRINGLAS: But this is not the first time observers declared a new era only for Trump to firm up his grip on congressional Republicans - for example, after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
FLAKE: Yeah, that is a fair point. I think a lot of us have been wrong on how long this has endured.
GRINGLAS: And most Republicans vocalizing their disagreements are retiring, represent competitive congressional districts or are perennial moderates. One of those centrists, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, says Congress has made some recent attempts to push back on the White House, like resolutions on tariffs and boat strikes, but they haven't been successful or sufficient.
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LISA MURKOWSKI: I'd like to see more, myself, and believe that if we don't stand up for our powers under the Constitution, nobody else will.
GRINGLAS: The Framers gave Congress the power to appropriate funds, to declare war and levy taxes, like tariffs. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune says it's unfair to say this Congress has relinquished its authority as an independent coequal branch.
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JOHN THUNE: I don't know how much different this one is. A lot of times, if I have differences with the administration, I don't litigate them in public. But we do have a responsibility, I think, as partners, to try and get an agenda done for the American people that they voted for.
GRINGLAS: Molly Reynolds, an expert on Congress at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, says it's true this is not just a Trump-era phenomenon. Congress has been ceding power to the executive and judicial branches for decades.
MOLLY REYNOLDS: And in some cases, Congress has been a willing and eager participant in sacrificing its own power to the other branches.
GRINGLAS: Reynolds says this did not start with Trump's willingness to act more unilaterally in his second term, but it did escalate the trend. Speaker Mike Johnson recently told "The Katie Miller Podcast" that, quote, "we have this joke that I'm not really a speaker of the House." Reynolds says there is precedent for Congress taking steps to reassert its authority, like the Watergate-era reforms that reined in the power of the president.
REYNOLDS: That was in a really different political moment than the one that we're living in now.
GRINGLAS: For one, the parties are more polarized, so Reynolds says it would be hard to envision a similar drive in Congress now to reassert power.
Sam Gringlas, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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