Retiring GOP lawmaker spills about what he dislikes most about Trump: 'I'm not into that'
WASHINGTON — After President Donald Trump’s historically combative State of the Union address, many retiring congressional Republicans are breathing sighs of relief.
“I like teams that are cohesive,” retiring five-term Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Raw Story of Trump’s bombastic Tuesday night address.
Bacon’s one of 29 House Republicans heading for the exits, part of a wave of 68 members who’ve announced their retirements after this Congress.
While 31 are running for governor or Senate, Bacon's one of a handful of more moderate Republicans slated to leave office altogether.
That’s in no small part because of the MAGA-turn of the GOP, which has many in the middle looking for a Trump-sized escape hatch from Trump.
“You got to pick somebody that's more of a unifier than a divider,” Bacon said at the Capitol. “He's a populist. Populists like anger, but I'm not into that.”
If you too don’t like anger mixed in with your politics, you may want to turn off your TV for the next nine months, because political watchers say on Tuesday Trump set the stage for one of America’s most bitter elections ever.
‘Pretty good for the base’
Americans struggling to pay their bills were given little hope as Trump all but declared mission accomplished while decrying the “nation in crisis” he took over from former President Joe Biden and bragging about a tariff-induced economy remade in his own image.
Trump’s rosy economic pronunciations garnered standing ovations from most Republicans in the chamber, even if many weren’t buying what the President was selling.
“Are you worried at all about the affordability pitch?” Raw Story asked Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL). “That Republicans risk coming across as out of touch in November?”
“I’m retiring,” the 10-term Republican told Raw Story through a laugh.
“Not your worry?” Raw Story pressed.
“I'm not worried,” Buchanan said. “It was pretty good for the base.”
What’s good for GOP gooses in Trump’s America isn’t necessarily good for GOP ganders.
“There's a lot of strength in economic numbers,” Bacon told Raw Story. “But what hurts — and he's part of the blame, both sides are — the angst and the anger, the hyper-polarization and the mocking, it's sort of ugly. It does hurt to see it.”
With Trump’s populism cloaked in hyper-polarization — tribalism, even — the anger-tinged State of the Union address wasn’t an outlier.
“What you saw … reflects the anger I see at home towards him and also anger his supporters have towards the public,” Bacon said. “It's a two-way thing. There is hate out there.
“I always think leadership should elevate things, but that's not his mantra.”
And Trump’s mantra may be coming to a governor’s mansion near you soon.
Revolution will be localised
The mass exodus of moderates is coupled with a wave of ideologues running to take what they’ve learned in Trump’s Washington to their state capitals.
During this midterm cycle, two sitting Republican U.S. senators and 10 House Republicans are waging gubernatorial contests where riding Trump’s coattails is seen as a boon to their brands.
That’s why many Republicans running in deep red states, despite the President’s plummeting national poll numbers, are clinging to Trump and his divisive State of the Union address.
“It was great! Call ’em out,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story. “He called it like it was. He's one of the few presidents who'll do that. He tells it like it is and calls people out.”
“Are you worried at all about the gridlock?” Raw Story asked, “The tribalism?”
“No,” said Tuberville, who’s running for Alabama governor. “We're not defeated, we're winning. America’s winning. That’s all we care about. We don’t care about politics.
“We lost for four years. We were going down the drain so fast. America is back!”
Some six hours east, in South Carolina, Trump’s not just a populist — he’s popular, at least according to a fall 2025 Winthrop University poll showing 80 percent approval with conservatives in the state.
That’s why gubernatorial candidate Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) has gushed since Trump’s address.
“Do you worry that your party risks looking out of touch with the American people when it comes to affordability?” Raw Story asked.
“The American people saw how the Democrats are not only out of touch, they still don't get it,” Norman said after Democrats refused to stand when the President railed against “illegal immigrants” Tuesday.
“They did it sitting on their hands. They're the new party of the socialists.”
To Norman, like many elected Republicans, the State of the Union address was as prophetic as it was a pronouncement of a new America.
“You look at the next four months and see what happens,”: Norman said. “If it's all good, it's going to have an impact.”
“If” is a mighty big word.
‘He misses Joe’
Democrats say their GOP counterparts are high on their own supply, especially after Trump spent the bulk of the State of the Union in reality TV mode, as when he awarded two war heroes with Medal of Honor’s in real time or garnered a rare bipartisan standing ovation for the gold medal-winning U.S. men's hockey team.
The celebration of exceptional Americans wasn’t lost on Democrats.
“There are wonderful people to honor in this country, and I'm glad that he honored them,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told Raw Story. “But I don't know, it kind of felt like he would rather talk about other people than talk about his record.”
Biden still holds a special place in Trump’s heart, according to Moskowitz.
“He misses him. He misses Joe,” Moskowitz said. “I mean, he misses Joe more than we miss Joe.”
Democrats miss “Uncle Joe” a lot, especially his appeals for bipartisan compromise.
While Biden was known as a fighter he also prized unity, which Democrats say is a concept lost on Trump, at least in the Tuesday address they saw as a historically prickly flop.
“Worst. Divisive. Partisan. Beneath the office of President,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) told Raw Story. “Didn't unite anyone; divided everyone. He should be pulling us together and uniting us.”
With the 2026 elections under way, liberal leaders like the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), left Trump’s address all but salivating.
“He's clearly disconnected from the struggles of the American people. That was very clear,” DelBene told Raw Story. “Affordability is the number one issue across the country and continues to be and no awareness on their side.”
“But Trump’s got the bully pulpit,” Raw Story pressed. “Does that worry you at all?”
“When people hear him talk and they have a different life experience, what they're going through right now, it doesn't connect, and we've seen that across the country,” DelBene said.
“We see in special elections, people are souring on the Republican agenda and the broken promises. He promised to lower costs on day one.”