Alex Henderson

When President Donald Trump's MAGA cheerleaders appear on Fox News and Fox Business, they typically put on their best game faces and predict that Republicans will hold the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. But during a Monday, appearance on MS NOW, conservative Republican Sarah Matthews (who served as deputy White House press secretary in the first Trump Administration and is now a vocal critic of the president) expressed confidence that Trump's "out of touch" messaging on the economy will help Democrats retake the House next year.

Matthews isn't the only one saying that GOP lawmakers could run into problems in 2026.

In a Bloomberg Government column published on Monday, Bloomberg News' Jonathan Tamari looks back on 2025 and cites some "winners and losers" in Congress....

During a Monday morning appearance on MS NOW, conservative Republican Sarah Matthews — who served as deputy White House press secretary in the first Trump Administration but is now an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump — argued that liberal firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is probably too progressive for Texas' 2026 U.S. Senate race. But she didn't think the seat was totally out of reach for Democrats with a more centrist nominee.

Texas remains a red state; Trump carried it by roughly 14 percent in 2024. Yet it's far from the reddest of the red states, and Matthews believes that Republicans have vulnerabilities there — some of which Dallas-based journalist Mike Lee (not to be confused with GOP senator from Utah) identifies in a Monday Politico Playbook column.

"Texas is still Trump country," Lee reports, "but the president's economic policies are starting to sting — and the fallout could hurt Republicans at the ballot box in 2026. Donald Trump took 56 percent of the vote in Texas when he won in 2024, improving his margins from both of his previous campaigns. Republicans also held onto their two-decade majority in the state legislature in the Lone Star State. But as 2025 closes out, polls show growing unrest within the Texas economy, and voters are beginning to blame Trump and Republicans for failing to produce results."...

After returning to the White House 11 months ago, President Donald Trump not only made a concerted effort to fill his administration, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI with MAGA loyalists — he also pushed for far-right judges to be confirmed for the lower federal courts.

But according to HuffPost reporter Jennnifer Bendery, Trump's push for MAGA-friendly federal judges is encountering a bump in the road: fewer retirements.

"President Donald Trump had a pretty good run in 2025 when it came to confirming judges," Bendery explains in an article published on December 29. "Republicans control the Senate and rubber-stamped most of his court picks, confirming a total of 25 lifetime federal judges. That's more than Trump got by this point in his first term (19), though not as many as former President Joe Biden (40). But the president was also hampered by a surprising new trend among sitting judges: They're not retiring when they're eligible to do so, and in effect, they've been denying Trump the ability to fill more vacancies with his picks."...

Although MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) is still serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, her days as a GOP lawmaker are coming to an end. Greene, in November, resigned from Congress to express her opposition to President Donald Trump's policies, and she's leaving on Monday, January 5, 2026 rather than serving out the rest of her term.

But unlike Trump's Democratic critics or Never Trump conservatives on the right, Greene is criticizing him from a MAGA standpoint — as she believes he has betrayed the America First agenda during his second term.

In an interview with the New York Times' Robert Draper published on December 29, Greene discussed her transition from an "absolute" Trump defender to an outspoken critic....

Far-right Christian nationalists are feeling empowered during Donald Trump's second presidency. Idaho-based evangelical Christ Church, led by pastor Doug Wilson — who believes that women never should have been given the right to vote — is openly embraced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And Vice President JD Vance, speaking at Turning Point USA's recent AmericaFest 2025 convention in Phoenix, told the MAGA crowd that the United States "always will be a Christian nation."

Vance received an aggressive fact-check from MS NOW's Steve Benen, who attacked his statement as "offensive, ahistorical nonsense" and reminded him that President Thomas Jefferson described the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment as "a wall of separation between church and state" back in 1802.

But as much support as Christian nationalism is receiving within the MAGA movement, reporting by Axios' Russell Contreras describes a pattern of "unchurching" in the United States — with many Americans having either a secular outlook or embracing a milder version of Christianity....