According to a former Republican lawmaker who fell out of favor with Donald Trump, walked away from his seat in the U.S. Senate and then saw a Democrat take his place, the president is unfazed by the GOP caucus taking another possible loss.
In a deep dive into two GOP lawmakers recently announcing they will not run in 2026, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), former Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) was asked about the shrinking number of Republican moderates in Congress by the Wall Street Journal.
After butting heads with Trump, Flake walked away from his seat, saw it filled by then-Democrat Kyrsten Sinema who was then replaced by Sen. Rueben Gallego (D-AZ).
As the Journal's Molly Ball wrote, the two recent announcements of departures are "the latest casualties of the president’s insistence on unstinting loyalty as the party looks ahead to a potentially difficult midterm election next year."
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Noting Trump nonchalantly responded to reporters by stating, "I didn’t get along with Tillis, and he resigned. Which I was happy about. He did us all a favor,” former lawmaker Flake begged to differ, stating the president once again made life more difficult for the GOP leadership.
After stating, "For me it became clear, just as I think it became clear to Thom Tillis, that if he were to be able to win a primary, he would have to change who he was completely,” Flake referred to his own departure in 2019 which led to the Democrats landing another seat in Congress and pointed out, "The president doesn’t care about that—he doesn’t care about the party."
The Journal's Ball added, "Departures like Flake’s were a common feature of Trump’s first term as Republicans with traditional values couldn’t bring themselves to change their ways and endorse Trump’s shifting whims. Many left office voluntarily, while others lost primaries to Trump-backed challengers. In today’s Trumpist party, such departures have become rare because there are fewer dissenters left. There have also been fewer occasions for Republicans to defy him and spark his wrath thus far, with Congress spending most of the year on a single piece of legislation."
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