President Donald Trump celebrated the victory of his hand-picked Senate candidate on Wednesday – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – who he endorsed over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), but in doing so he's grown an army of GOP “apostates” i Congress perfectly poised to undercut his agenda.
The dynamic was highlighted Wednesday in an analysis published in The Washington Post, where chief political correspondent Karen Tumulty noted that Trump has increasingly engaged in what she characterized as a risky strategy.
“One by one, Trump is putting an end to the political careers of lawmakers in his party that he deems, for reasons more personal than policy-oriented, to be apostates,” Tumulty wrote. “But in doing so, he may also be liberating them as they serve out their remaining seven months in Congress. They now have nothing to lose if they stand up against him.”
Cornyn joins two other Senate Republicans that have invoked fury from Trump: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who under threat of facing a Trump-backed primary challenger decided against running for re-election, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who lost his recent primary race after voting to rein in the president’s war powers.
In Congress, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was beaten by a Trump-backed challenger.
All have several months remaining in office and may very well throw a wrench in the president’s agenda.
“True, until now, the Republican-led Congress has largely been supine with respect to Trump, his whims and his wishes,” Tumulty wrote. “But even as the glare of his power within the party appears greater than ever, it might be worth remembering one of the long-held observations of astronomers: A star gets brighter as it begins to burn out.”