With three years of his second term still to go, President Donald Trump’s ability to successfully bully Republican Party lawmakers appears to have run its course, as high-profile and state lawmakers have found out they can oppose him and come out on top.
In a column for the Washington Post, longtime conservative D.C. watcher Jim Geraghty suggested Trump's acquiescence late Sunday night to demands for the notorious Jeffrey Epstein files to be released is an acknowledgment that his influence is waning.
On Monday, Geraghty, who writes daily for the conservative National Review, argues that one need not give credit to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for breaking with the president on both the files and the Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Nonetheless, he suggested she was the canary in the coal mine that suggest the president and his threats are in danger of no longer being taken seriously.
“The fracas does merit close attention, because Greene is demonstrating that a high-profile member of the MAGA movement can vehemently disagree with the president and apparently emerge unscathed.
"If she pulls this off, she’ll show that Trump may no longer be the kingmaker in Republican primaries, or in the MAGA crusade,” he wrote before joking, “Oh, look, it’s a road sign saying, ‘Lame Duck-ville, next three exits.’”
As he noted, after Trump lashed out at Greene and urged a primary challenger for her, she instead got the backing of Jim Tully, chairman for the GOP in her district, who posted on X that Greene has his “full and unwavering support” and praised her “uncompromising dedication to the principles that define both our district and our nation.
”That is bad news for the president," the columnist wrote.
Pointing out that the Georgia Republican is “demonstrating you can disagree with Trump and emerge relatively unscathed,” he added, “Greene may be a lunatic, as the president says, but she’s a lunatic who’s looking down the road and positioning herself for the day Donald Trump no longer enjoys unfettered power over Republican politics.”
