The Indiana state Senate’s vote against a new congressional map that President Donald Trump had pressured it to adopt is one of the most remarkable illustrations to date of Republicans standing up to Trump.
But it wasn’t even the sole instance Thursday.
Indeed, Trump got a sequence of pushback pitches in his endeavors to dominate his party and American politics.
The day seemed to confirm the emerging boundaries of Trump’s capacity to compel others to yield to him, as his poll figures decline and he trends toward lame-duck standing.
They were confronting the president’s threats to unseat them in primaries, pressure from Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson and a large number of physical menaces. (Law enforcement authorities have not linked the threats to any group or campaign.)
In other words, these Republicans would have known precisely the potentially grave consequences of their votes — and a majority of them still voted against Trump.
The tally was also crucial in another manner: It might have placed a final blow on Trump’s major redistricting drive. Without securing two favorable districts in Indiana (as the map suggested), Trump’s bare-knuckle push for states to gerrymander in the middle of the decade to aid the GOP next year appears to be waning.
Republicans might achieve an advantage in a few seats, but it’s looking increasingly like it will be pretty close to a draw.
In Virginia, the Justice Department failed for a second occasion to secure a re-indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James. The two unsuccessful tries have occurred after a judge dismissed an initial indictment because the US attorney who obtained it was not serving lawfully.
Just to stress: This is not typical. In a full twelvemonth between October 2012 and September 2013, federal grand juries rejected indictments only five times nationwide – out of 165,000 cases. They’ve now done it twice in the James case alone.
All of this follows after another grand jury also rejected a charge against former FBI Director James Comey, yet another of Trump’s targets for retribution, in his initial indictment.
The emerging view appears to verify just how thinly constructed the accusations in Trump’s retribution campaign are. And the whole affair, much like his redistricting pursuit, looks like it could be fading because an establishment — in this instance, the criminal justice system — isn’t submitting to his desire.
More GOP lawmakers break with Trump
The situation is analogous with Trump’s endeavors to target Democrats who cautioned military service-members about the Trump administration potentially issuing unlawful directives. Trump accused a half-dozen Democrats like Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona of seditious and even treasonous conduct, and he even invoked the capital punishment.
But Trump’s reprisal endeavors there also sustained a major setback Thursday. After the Navy delivered a report on Kelly that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had requested, Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker suggested to CNN that there was nothing substantial there.
And Indiana wasn’t even the sole legislature to deliver Trump a reprimand on Thursday. So too did the US House, where 20 House Republicans voted to reverse Trump’s executive order that stripped federal workers of collective negotiation privileges.
While the legislation appears unlikely to become statute, it’s unusual for Republicans to vote so clearly against something Trump desires or has done. And those voting against him weren’t solely moderates.
And finally, there’s another vital discussion in Washington where lawmakers appear to be on a vastly different page from Trump – and don’t seem to be shifting, despite his efforts.
News surfaced Thursday that Trump was nominating Lindsey Halligan, who was disqualified in the James and Comey cases, to be confirmed as US attorney. Her confirmation would grant her authority to seek these kinds of indictments for Trump.
There’s a major hurdle, though: Under its longstanding “blue slip” regulation, the Senate doesn’t confirm nominees like her unless they have the support of senators in the state concerned. And Virginia has two Democratic senators who will not grant Halligan such affirmation.
Trump’s been waging a persistent pressure drive to get Senate GOP leadership to discard this regulation, which he also renewed Thursday on social media.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune holds a press conference following the GOP weekly policy lunch on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune holds a press conference following the GOP weekly policy lunch on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
But his renewed push was met with a fairly swift dismissal by key Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune stated there are “way more Republican senators who are interested in preserving that [regulation] than those who aren’t.” Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, meanwhile, suggested the real issue was that the White House wasn’t sending him sufficient nominees for judiciary posts. “ATTN WH; SEND MORE NOMS,” the Iowa Republican posted on X.
The episode encapsulated an emerging pattern with Trump in which he seems to just toss something at the wall and hope it adheres.
But that doesn’t appear to be serving him as effectively anymore, particularly as institutions and even his fellow Republicans summon some fortitude and bravery to oppose him.
And Thursday was a fairly adverse day for Trump on that front.
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