President Donald Trump speaks to the media while walking to board Marine One before departing from the South Lawn of the White House on February 13, 2026 in Washington.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party may be starting to loosen just a little.
A handful of Republicans who regularly oppose him, such as Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, have become more vocal than ever. And in recent days, things have dawned between the president and a few powerful allies in Congress.
As Mr. Trump, the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, grapples with stubbornly low approval ratings, clear changes are afoot — especially on the economy, a longstanding issue on which Mr. Trump was elected and which has become increasingly important to Americans frustrated by high prices.
This week, six Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal President Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Mr. Tillis has remained adamant in protesting the Justice Department’s recent investigation into the Fed chair and holding on to the president’s nomination of the Fed chair. The administration reversed its ongoing anti-immigrant enforcement efforts in Minnesota. And the fallout from the Epstein files, which refer to Mr. Trump and his allies, is reeling the world and its most powerful powers.
Democrats have seized the opportunity, with some pushing the theory that the tide is turning against Trump. Their momentum follows a resounding victory in last fall’s off-year elections with an affordable message, and market expectations are that they will win a House majority in the midterm elections.
“Trump’s grip on power is diminishing,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said approvingly in a social media post Thursday. “No one wants to take his bulls away. Somehow he keeps the price down for families.”
The administration’s efforts this week to seize the affordability narrative by drawing attention to President Trump’s drug pricing policies, the stock market’s rise or predictions that Americans’ tax refunds will increase this season have been drowned out by a barrage of political setbacks and controversy. President Trump gave no hint of curbing price increases as he met with troops in North Carolina on Friday, hours after the release of January consumer price index data showing slowing inflation.
Since his racist social media posts last Friday, he has been less likely to appear in public, a change from his recent pace of appearing before reporters in the Oval Office alongside political and business allies. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a frequent press conference partner of President Trump, did not speak publicly during his visit to the White House this week.
Asked about the Republican challenge to Trump, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said the party would continue to work with the president as leader.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Republicans will continue to unite against radical Democrats who, given the chance, will once again destroy our country with wide-open borders, non-citizens voting, and terrible economic policies,” Levitt said in an email.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to override President Trump’s tariffs on Canada because three Republicans previously sided with Democrats and overrode a rule that would have blocked the House from voting on President Trump’s tariffs until July. President Trump’s threat of retaliation did not impede the final outcome.
The tariff vote is almost purely symbolic, but it shows that Republican leaders have not done enough to thwart members who openly defy President Trump’s signature economic policies. For Republicans to win on partisan votes, they can only lose one vote in the House.
A day after the House tariff vote, U.S. border czar Tom Homan announced the government would end a “surge” in immigration enforcement in Minnesota, following public backlash over aggressive tactics by federal agents made worse by the killing of two Americans in Minneapolis.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC found that most Americans think the administration’s sending in deportation troops has gone too far and that the Republican Party’s advantage on immigration has shrunk since last year.
Minnesota’s action prompted a fierce backlash not only from protesters and Democrats, but also from business owners. In an open letter shared Thursday, more than 266 companies across the United States, representing 100,000 others, warned that the government’s actions threaten the free market.
A series of other Trump-related stumbles have diverted public attention from his administration’s attempts to tout its accomplishments.
Last week, the president’s social media accounts posted racist images depicting the Obamas as monkeys. Many Republicans responded strongly and quickly to their opposition to the post. That included South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a Trump ally and the only black Senate Republican, who called the post “the most racist thing I’ve seen in this White House.”
The White House initially defended the post, but after an outpouring of bipartisan outrage, pivoted to blaming an anonymous staffer. President Trump subsequently condemned the image but refused to apologize.
A federal grand jury this week rejected an attempt by U.S. prosecutors to indict six Democratic members of Congress, weeks after President Trump accused them of sedition for instructing military personnel to disobey illegal orders. It is highly unusual for a grand jury to refuse to indict.
The Justice Department is also in the midst of a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose refusal to cut interest rates quickly has made him a top target of President Trump’s ire.
Chairman Powell has called the investigation retaliatory, prompting vocal opposition from Republicans who fear it will undermine the central bank’s long-established independence.
Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his current term, has blocked all of the Trump administration’s nominees for the Fed board from passing the Senate, including Kevin Warsh, the president’s pick to replace Powell, until the Justice Department suspends its investigation.
The president said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro of the District of Columbia, a Trump ally, should continue the investigation to completion.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Scott has said he does not believe Mr. Powell committed a crime, while Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that Mr. Powell is corrupt or grossly incompetent and complained about overspending on building renovations. Tillis said many Republicans on the Banking Committee agree that Powell committed no crime.
President Trump is also grappling with the fallout from the Justice Department’s release of millions of files on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a fallout that has only intensified in the days since the latest revelations. Trump had opposed legislation that would force the Justice Department to publicly share files, but reversed course as more Republicans prepared to vote in favor of the bill anyway.
Newly released records reveal relationships between Mr. Epstein and administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who admitted to visiting Mr. Epstein’s island for lunch with his family in 2012.
