WASHINGTON: After a resounding election victory, delivering what President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans call a “mandate” to govern, an uneasy political question is emerging: Will there be any room for dissent in the U.S. Congress?
Trump is laying down a gauntlet even before taking office challenging the Senate, in particular, to dare defy him over the nominations of Matt Gaetz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other controversial choices for his Cabinet and administration positions.
The promise of unified government, with the Republican Party’s sweep of the White House and GOP majorities in the House and Senate, is making way for a more complicated political reality as congressional leaders confront anew what it means to line up with Trump’s agenda.
“This is going to be a red alert moment for American democracy,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on CNN after Trump tapped Gaetz for attorney general.
Trump is returning to the White House at the height of his political power, having won both the Electoral College and the popular vote for his party for the first time in decades. The trifecta in Washington offers a tantalizing political opportunity for Republicans, opening up a universe of political and policy priorities — from tax cuts to mass deportations to the gutting of the regulatory and federal bureaucracy, along with Trump’s vows to seek vengeance and prosecution of his perceived enemies and pardon those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
But for Congress, it’s also a potentially existential moment, one that is testing whether its status as a co-equal branch of U.S. government can withstand a second Trump administration.
“One of the possible futures for Congress is that it becomes a rubber stamp,” said Phillip Wallach, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who writes extensively about Congress.
Wallach said the threat to Congress has been on his mind, but he also believes it would be more pronounced if Republicans had won larger majorities. The House, in fact, may end up with slimmer numbers, and the Senate’s 53-seat advantage, while more than the simple majority needed to confirm nominees, can hardly be seen as mandates.
Besides, “they’re not wimps,” he said of elected lawmakers. “There’s no reason for them to just turn themselves into a doormat.”
It’s a changed Washington from Trump’s first term. Congress has been purged of his strongest critics. At the same time, the Supreme Court has shifted dramatically rightward, with three Trump-appointed justices, and a majority decision over the summer that granted the president broad immunity from prosecution.
Trump’s Cabinet picks are posing the biggest early test for Congress.
While Trump’s choice of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for secretary of state is expected to have somewhat broad support, including from Democrats, others like Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Pete Hegseth as defense secretary are raising more scrutiny.