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The more Republicans on Capitol Hill defy the president’s demands, the more he looks like a faltering lame duck.
Democratic opponents of Donald Trump’s war with Iran tried seven times to pass a measure to severely restrict the president’s war powers, and seven times, Republicans balked. Two weeks ago, however, there was a breakthrough: Four GOP senators broke ranks and helped Democrats advance a war powers resolution through the upper chamber.
This week, in the House, it happened again. MS NOW reported:
More than three months after President Donald Trump first launched an attack on Iran — and, more relevantly, more than 90 days since the war began — the House successfully voted to reassert Congress’ authority over the war.
In a 215-208 vote, the House adopted a war powers resolution on Wednesday, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in support of the legislation. (Reps. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted for the resolution.)
As a practical matter, the potency of the resolution is limited. The Senate approved a different war powers measure, and even if the upper chamber were to advance the House’s version, it would face a presidential veto.
But as a political matter, the bipartisan House vote was a stinging setback for Trump, who condemned the developments with predictable rage, castigating the vote as “unpatriotic” and telling the four GOP members who backed the measure that they “should be ashamed of themselves.”
Shortly after the war powers vote, the GOP-led House also advanced a discharge petition on providing U.S. aid to Ukraine — six Republicans voted with Democrats in support of the measure — in defiance of the White House’s position.
A Politico report noted, “These moves — as Democrats use surging gas prices and the war to make headway in the run-up to the midterms — indicate a growing tension between the White House and Hill Republicans.”
Indeed, Trump’s legislative losing streak is increasingly embarrassing. In recent weeks, Republicans have also:
If the president were at the top of his game, riding high with a strong approval rating, it’s safe to say none of this would have happened. The list is itself evidence of his faltering fortunes.
The conventional wisdom suggests that Trump’s control over congressional Republicans is complete and unrelenting. The president barks orders and GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill obey, motivated by some combination of fear, partisan allegiance, loyalty and ideological agreement.
But with the president’s approval rating sinking to unusually low levels, polls showing Democrats relatively well positioned ahead of the midterm elections, and some Republicans joining the “YOLO caucus,” with members who are indifferent to the president’s wrath, Trump’s grip is clearly slipping.
As recently as December, House Speaker Mike Johnson told Capitol Hill reporters, in reference to the president, “He is not a lame duck. He’s the most powerful person of this generation.”
Months later, that quacking sound you hear in the distance is the sound of an increasingly lame duck.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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