Former Trump administration official Miles Taylor predicted Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s “self-serving agenda” may soon trigger a GOP Senate revolt, one that could potentially sink his future nominees for the remainder of his term.
“I hear a sound coming from the Republican side of the aisle,” Taylor wrote in an analysis published on his Substack. “It’s not exactly the sound of ‘the resistance,’ but it’s at least worth calling ‘the reluctance.’ There’s a growing unease among Republican senators about Trump’s self-serving agenda.”
Where such a GOP Senate revolt may first materialize, Taylor theorized, could be in the Senate confirmation hearings slated for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who Trump selected on Monday to serve in the role permanently.
Taylor suggested that, much like Trump’s nomination of Bill Pulte to serve as his new Director of National Intelligence, “surely some [Republican senators] rolled their eyes at the nomination of Blanche.” Pulte’s nomination has sparked unprecedented pushback from conservative voices, a sign, Taylor argued, of an impending break in the status quo.
“So what’s that sound I hear? Somewhere inside the flaccid consciences of those Republican senators who I used to work with, there’s a smaller conscience trying to get attention,” Taylor wrote. “A conscience within a conscience. He’s squeaking desperately in the dark, while his master turns up the volume on Fox and Newsmax.”
Trump has faced an increased number of rebukes from lawmakers within his own party in recent weeks, including last week when four House Republicans voted to curb his war powers, or last month when GOP senators moved to restrict the president’s controversial $1.7 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a taxpayer-funded settlement designed to award payouts to Trump’s supporters.