Despite President Donald Trump’s strong grip on the Republican Party, several GOP lawmakers have shown signs of resistance to his policy platform.
From his remarks about Gaza and Ukraine to his aggressive cost-cutting measures, some Republicans have broken ranks with their party and been openly critical of the president in recent weeks.
Why It Matters
The growing number of Republican challenges to Trump’s leadership signals potential fractures within the party.
While he remains the dominant force in the GOP, these moments of defiance suggest that not all Republicans are fully aligned with his agenda. The extent of these rebellions could shape the party’s future, influence legislative battles, and impact Trump’s ability to govern effectively.
AP
Gaza
At the beginning of February, Trump faced backlash from some members of his own party over his comments on Gaza.
It came after he said at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. wants to “take over” the Gaza Strip. He also suggested that American troops could be sent into the territory. “We’ll do what is necessary,” he said when asked about deploying troops to fill a potential security vacuum.
The president did not clarify under what legal authority he could take control of Gaza or displace the approximately 1.8 million Palestinians who remain there.
His comments sparked confusion and backlash from members of Congress, including some Republicans. One GOP senator, granted anonymity to give his candid reaction to Trump’s comments, told Politico: “I did not have this on my bingo card (…) I got so many questions.”
Other Republicans came out publicly against Trump. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham called the idea “problematic,” saying most of his constituents would not support sending U.S. troops to the region.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis dismissed the idea, saying, “Obviously it’s not going to happen,” and calling it “a bit of a stretch.”
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley also criticized the plan, saying, “I don’t think it’s the best use of United States resources to spend a bunch of money in Gaza” and that he would prefer those funds be used domestically.
Other Republicans were hesitant to comment. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch both said they had not seen Trump’s remarks, while Texas Senator John Cornyn admitted, “I don’t really know what to make of that.”
North Dakota Senator John Hoeven suggested the president may be using the statement as a negotiating tactic to “force a resolution” on a difficult issue.
Budget Resolution
Divisions within the Republican Party were also evident during negotiations over the budget resolution in February, which passed in the House this week after Republicans disagreed over government spending.
Trump previously called for the elimination of the federal debt ceiling—a move he described as “the smartest thing” Congress could do. The debt ceiling is a statutory limit on how much the federal government can borrow. However, some Republicans disagreed that Congress should be adding to the deficit.
In the House, where the Republicans hold a small majority, the bill passed along party lines by 217 votes to 215 after a campaign by House Speaker Mike Johnson to push GOP holdouts to back Trump’s “big beautiful bill”.
Three House Republicans—Tim Burchett, Victoria Spartz, and Warren Davidson—initially signaled they would oppose the measure, but ultimately backed the speaker. Thomas Massie was the only Republican to vote against it. Before the vote, Massie wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better.” The resolution will now move to the Senate.
The Senate last week passed a $340-billion budget blueprint by 52-48 votes just before 5 a.m. after an all-night session in which senators cast votes on 33 amendments over the course of a 10-hour span.
Lawmakers cast their votes mostly along party lines, but one Republican Senator, Rand Paul, broke ranks, joining all 47 Democrats in voting against the blueprint. He said he opposed a measure adding more than $300 billion to the deficit and argued instead that Congress should be voting to approve more spending cuts.
Government Cuts
Trump’s program of government cuts has also ruffled feathers in the Republican Party. Since his second term began, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created by the president, has recommended the firing of more than 200,000 federal workers, and about 75,000 probationary federal employees have accepted buyout plans known as “deferred resignations,” per the Office of Personnel Management.
Amid the firings, Senator John Curtis urged DOGE head Elon Musk to show “compassion” for federal workers.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk it’s: ‘Please put a dose of compassion in this,'” Curtis said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and be cruel to do it as well.”
New Jersey Representative Jeff Van Drew told The Washington Post: “My concern is that we use a scalpel (…) and not use a sledgehammer. We have to be really careful that we’re cutting things that don’t hurt everyday people.”
Curtis also criticized Musk after he announced last weekend that federal workers would receive “an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.” He added that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
“It’s not unusual in a corporate setting to have people report and explain what they’re doing, especially if they’re working from home,” Curtis said, referring to the email. “But I will double down on the fact that we don’t need to be so cold and hard, and let’s put a little compassion and dignity in this as well.”
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski also criticized DOGE for the email, calling it “absurd” in a post on X Monday, and likening the directive to “intimidation” in an interview with NBC.
After the instruction landed in federal inboxes over the weekend, department and agency directors for the Justice, Defense and State Departments and the FBI began fending off the push.
Meanwhile, Murkowski this week warned against government overreach in light of Trump’s decisions.
Speaking to NBC News, Murkowski said “when the executive basically blows by Congress or rolls right over Congress and we allow that, we are seating our responsibility.”
“I believe that you can absolutely be a 100-percent supporter of President Trump and still stand up for the institution of the Senate, for the legislative branch with our authorities that are prescribed to us specifically by the Constitution,” she added.
Murkowski sent a stark warning: “But if we don’t, if we just say, ‘Well, we like his policies and so therefore we’re going to cede some of our authorities,’ don’t think that this is the last time you’re going to see that.”
Mount Denali
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order to rename Denali, North America’s highest peak, back to Mount McKinley. The mountain was originally named after President William McKinley in 1917, but was changed to Denali in 2015 by Barack Obama, restoring its Indigenous Koyukon Athabascan name, meaning “the great one.”
Alaska had petitioned to revert the name as early as 1975, but efforts were blocked by Ohio lawmakers, McKinley’s home state. Despite McKinley’s name being associated with the peak for over a century, he had no direct ties to the mountain or Alaska.
Murkowski criticized Trump for reverting the name of her state’s 20,000-foot mountain to McKinley, saying she “strongly disagrees” with the decision.
“I strongly disagree with the president’s decision on Denali. Our nation’s tallest mountain, which has been called Denali for thousands of years, must continue to be known by the rightful name bestowed by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans, who have stewarded the land since time immemorial,” she wrote on X.
According to an executive order obtained by the New York Post, Trump justified the renaming as a way to honor “American greatness” and recognize McKinley’s legacy.
Ukraine
GOP Representative Don Bacon said Trump was “wrong” to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator and for appearing to be “standing on the side” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The president needs a do-over day—and start again. He took a bad turn,” Bacon, a moderate Republican, said in an interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “I think what he said is wrong, and it’s a shame.”
Trump’s war of words with Ukrainian Zelensky escalated Wednesday when he took to Truth Social, calling the Kyiv leader a “dictator without elections” who was doing a “terrible job.” However, Bacon pushed back, emphasizing that Zelensky was democratically elected and that his country’s constitution allows elections to be postponed under the martial law imposed due to Russia’s invasion.
Bacon also made it clear that Trump’s comments do not represent the entire GOP. “Many Republicans know what the president said today was wrong,” he said, stressing that Putin is the true dictator who has “killed all of his opponents.”
GOP Representative Brian Fitzpatrick also publicly rebuked Trump over his comments with a one-sentence tweet. “Vladimir Putin is the Dictator without Elections,” he wrote.
In another post, he wrote: “President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [sic] need not, and must not, have any deal forced upon him by any outside nation that does not guarantee the security and the sovereignty of the Ukrainian people.
“We all want an immediate end to this brutal Russian invasion and killing,” Fitzpatrick continued.
USAID Cuts
The Trump administration caused outcry in February when it attempted to put more than 2,000 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers on paid leave and recall nearly all of those posted abroad.
Under the plan, most USAID programs worldwide would also be suspended following a funding freeze initiated by the White House. The plan was initially temporarily blocked by a federal judge before another judge ordered the administration could resume the plan.
At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing earlier in February to highlight waste at USAID, at least two Republicans criticized Trump’s plans.
“[Chinese President] Xi Jinping is watching and he is waiting for the chance to fill any U.S. vacuum,” said GOP Representative Young Kim, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee.
“Already, there have been many reports of Chinese Communist Party officials signaling their willingness to replace USAID in Nepal and [taking over] demining activities in Cambodia, and these are just the instances that we know about. Even critics of USAID acknowledge the critical soft power of targeted and efficient programming.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Natsios, who led USAID for five years during the George W. Bush administration, said: “If you’re upset about getting off course, so am I, but let’s course correct, not course destroy.”
In an announcement on Wednesday, the Trump administration said it is cutting more than 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts, The Associated Press reported.
What People Are Saying
Democratic political consultant James Carville wrote in a New York Times op-ed: “With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead.
“Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight, and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat.”
What Happens Next
For now, public approval of Trump remains high. But if that falls, more Republicans could turn against him.
