Republican analyst Juan Williams is arguing that Republicans are retiring from Congress at historic levels because President Donald Trump is increasingly unpopular.

“You’d quit, too,” Williams wrote in his recent editorial for The Hill. Breaking down the logic of the many Republican legislators with whom he has spoken, Williams described it as dozens of them independently picking “Option One” from the list: “Option One: They can quit. Option Two: They can keep silent on alarming polls showing low public approval for Trump and his Republican Party as the midterms approach. Option Three: Accept that there is a price to be paid for Trump-worship.”

Williams added that while “blindly jumping on the Trump bandwagon” helped Republicans win the presidential and legislative elections in 2024, “now the cost of their idolatry is piling up for Republicans remaining in Washington as Trump begins his final days.”

As one example, Williams noted that Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), decided not to run for reelection. Nehls said that “if Donald Trump says, ‘jump three feet high and scratch your head,’ we all jump three feet high and scratch our head” after Trump won the 2024 election.

Williams also quoted Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned from her Georgia US House seat earlier this year, saying that by remaining in office she would “be expected to defend the president against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me,” a scenario Greene described as “absurd and completely unserious.”

“Greene’s forecast of bad weather for House Republicans who stay around for Trump’s remaining time in office now looks spot on,” Williams added. “Last week, six House Republicans voted against Trump on tariffs. He immediately took to social media to attack and threaten them.”

Overall 51 House members and 12 senators have so far decided not to run for reelection, on track for the most departures from Congress this century. That group of 63 retirees includes 36 Republicans. Currently, Fox polls show 61 percent disapproval of Trump’s performance on the economy, 62 percent disapproval of his performance on health care costs and 64 percent disapproval of his performance on inflation and tariffs. The voters most motivated to vote prefer Democrats at a rate of 52 percent, “the highest recorded for either party. In 2017, the last time it was even close (50 percent), House Republicans lost their majority later in that cycle.”

Williams has previously sounded the alarm to fellow Republicans about Democrats’ chances in the 2026 midterm elections.

"Epstein remains a problem for Republicans as Congress returns,” Williams wrote in September. “But there are fires everywhere. And should Democrats take control in 2026, a third Trump impeachment will be on the table.”

Williams has also harshly criticized Republicans like the former Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), for trying to distance themselves from the mess they helped to create with the current president.

"The bad news for McConnell is that despite his decades towering over Washington as a top GOP leader, he is now eclipsed by President Trump's takeover of his party," Williams wrote. "Trump has called McConnell 'a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack' and warned that Republicans would lose if they remained aligned with him. And Trump issued a racially pointed insult to McConnell's wife. McConnell didn’t fire back."

Adding that McConnell voted to acquit Trump after his coup attempt on January 6, 2021, Williams concluded that his attempts to “regain some dignity by defying Trump with votes against Trump's nominations of Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary” are "too little too late."

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