‘Retribution agenda’: GOP senators laugh and shrug over Trump’s vicious shutdown cuts
Save the courts, nothing seems to stand in Trump’s way.
The House of Representatives is on an impromptu vacation, Republicans having jammed their Senate counterparts with a government funding measure negotiated without Democratic involvement.
Practically speaking, that makes Senate Republicans the most powerful block in Washington.
But if you're looking to the Senate GOP to intervene to get the government back open, think again.
As the shutdown stretches into its eighth day, Trump is tripling down on his partisan attacks — “We can get rid of a lot of things,” the president said last week, “Democrat things” — and promising more politically targeted cuts to follow.
Even so, most Senate Republicans barely muster a shrug.
“Do you have any concerns with how the administration’s specifically targeting — and canceling — projects just for blue states?” Raw Story asked Trump-ally Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). “Why are you laughing?”
“What do you think [President Joe] Biden would have done?” Johnson replied.
“But did he?” Raw Story pressed. “He didn’t…”
Johnson didn’t reply. He smiled.
On the other side of the aisle, no one’s smiling.
Democrats are braced for what Trump and co plan to throw their way next.
“It's definitely part of his retribution agenda, going after anybody he perceives as enemies,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) told Raw Story.
New Hampshire’s retiring senior senator is part of a handful working behind the scenes to negotiate a way out of the partisan bind that’s shuttered large swaths of an already beleaguered federal workforce.
Those unofficial talks remain unsanctioned by party leaders, which is why Shaheen bemoans extraneous, hyper-partisan pressure from Trump’s White House.
“One of the challenges is making sure that people can trust each other,” Shaheen said. “And there's a lack of that right now.”
The threats, memes and rants don’t seem to be letting up.
‘Stop playing games’
You’d think Washington would be short on trust in these divided days, but in one sense the opposite seems true: Broad swaths of both parties trust their counterparts to lie.
Democrats also expect the GOP to dissect and dismantle what’s left of the legacies of Presidents Biden and Barack Obama — whether concerning health care or renewable energy.
Senators are holding out, demanding a concrete promise that the GOP won’t allow Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) premiums to skyrocket.
Republicans continue rebuffing Democrats’ demands, even as the White House ups its attacks.
Democrats are still reeling from last week’s announcement that the Trump administration was canceling roughly $8 billion in clean energy projects across 16 Democratic-leaning states.
That’s on top of efforts to withhold billions of dollars for public transit projects in the blue bastions of New York City — a metropolis Trump threatens to defund if voters tap Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor — and Chicago, whose mayor, Brandon Johnson, the president now says should be jailed.
Yet most Republicans, publicly at least, claim they don’t know what the fuss is about.
“What do you think of the administration saying, ‘We're not going to fund these projects because they're [in] blue states’?” Raw Story asked Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE).
“I think you need to open the government,” Fischer said. “I hope the Democrats do.”
As the senator boarded an elevator in the Capitol basement, Raw Story pressed the issue.
“You're not worried about a little payback the next time we get another Biden in the White House?”
Fischer just smiled.
“Yes, ma'am,” Raw Story said, as the elevator doors closed.
Other Republicans aren’t smiling, even when regurgitating talking points.
“Curious, are you worried at all about the overt partisanship?” Raw Story asked Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), of blue-state infrastructure projects cancelled by the White House.
“Where we’re focused on waste, fraud and abuse — that's appropriate,” Hoeven said.
“But this is 16 blue states,” Raw Story pressed.
“Well, beyond that, for Democrats that are concerned about how it's being done, they should join with us and vote yes on this [funding measure] and get the government open.”
“But the partisanship doesn't worry you?”
“Well, I haven't seen what reductions they're doing,” Hoeven said, of the green energy cancellations. “But for anybody that's concerned about it, the best way to address it would be to vote to open up the government, wouldn't it?”
Even some more moderate Republicans are giving Trump leeway.
“There's no question the president's playing hardball,” Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) — who refused to endorse Trump in 2024 after the January 6 attack on the Capitol — told Raw Story. “That's expected, right?”
“But a state like Indiana, if the next [Democratic president] comes in and they target you all, like, is that democracy?” Raw Story asked. “Is that how this is supposed to work?”
“There's precedent for Democratic presidents disproportionately giving favor to their own states and disfavor to other states,” Young said. “So this is not unlike that, one might argue.”
“But is it good?” Raw Story pressed. “Is this how America’s supposed to run?”
“It's, it's — it's a reality, which is why we need to open government right now,” Young said. “Democrats need to stop playing games.”
‘Don't think that's right’
Even in Trump’s heavy-handed second term, it is possible to find some Republicans pushing back on the White House for so blatantly inserting politics into federal funding.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) speaks to the media. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
“I don't think that's right,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told Raw Story.
“Are you telling that to the administration?” Raw Story pressed.
“There are inappropriate actions occurring on both sides,” Collins said.
While Maine’s senior senator doesn’t seem to be relaying her consternation to the president, one of the GOP’s other remaining moderates is calling the president out.
“We shouldn’t be targeting different areas in ways that would be viewed as punitive, that’s just not what we do,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told reporters at the Capitol.
“If there is a rationale that the administration has for foreclosures or terminations of grants, present it out there but let’s not paint it blue and red. Let’s not further divide people politically.”
‘Schoolyard bully’
While Trump’s overt targeting of blue state funding is new, it’s not a surprise to most Democrats.
“That's who Trump is — he's a schoolyard bully,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) told Raw Story. “Maybe what is new is that they're articulating what they've been doing.”
Even so, more moderate Democrats hope Trump realizes his shutdown shenanigans are making him look more petty than presidential.
“I don't think that's helpful,” Sen. Shaheen of New Hampshire said. “It's not helpful for the president either. The public doesn't like that.”
“Does that feel new?” Raw Story pressed. “More overt?”
“Yes. It's definitely part of his retribution agenda going after anybody he perceives as enemies,” Shaheen said. “What people are looking for in this country right now is somebody who's going to bring people together, who's going to try and help bridge divides, not create more.”
To the more progressive wing of an increasingly progressive party, the entire sordid shutdown scuffle is revealing Trump and Republicans’ true colors.
“It shows that it's the Republicans who are enjoying this,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told Raw Story. “Once you understand who's enjoying this you understand who's responsible for it.”
“Will that point stick?” Raw Story asked. “Like, this place just feels like it got more cynical — if it was even possible.”
Hopping on an underground Senate tram, Whitehouse laughed.
“Welcome to our world,” the senator said.
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