U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while hosting a dinner in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump has long polarized America, with Democrats fiercely opposing him and Republicans doing his bidding almost reflexively. Now a new report reveals that, even as Americans grow increasingly disgusted with this hyper-partisanship, the Congress that theoretically serves the people is instead degenerating into the very acrimonious gridlock that they deplore.
"'They’re just petrified of Trump,' said Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who served in the House for 36 years before voting to impeach Trump in January 2021 and subsequently deciding not to seek another term," reported The New York Times' Robert Draper on Wednesday. "'Name the issue. It’s just amazing. No one’s got a spine.'"
Draper added, "Upton elaborated further on the fear among Republicans: 'Look, I know the pressure. If you signal you’re going to vote the wrong way, leadership calls you in. Then the White House starts to turn the screws. Then you start getting threats on social media. I’ve had very serious threats to my home. We put in security cameras that connected directly to the Police Department. And now they have trackers who look for you in restaurants. Today it’s worse than ever. Remember, Trump has the command over the Republican Party in every state and county. There’s no anti-Trump Republican bastion.'"
A Democrat lawmaker had his own take on Upton's concerns.
"As Representative Jim Himes, a moderate Democrat from Connecticut who has served in the House for 18 years, told me in June, 'Congress is somewhere between dysfunctional and irrelevant — and is despised by the people,'" Draper wrote. "Congress was already unpopular decades before Trump became president. Since 1974, according to Gallup polling, its approval rating has averaged a dismal 28 percent. As of July, Congress has the lowest favorability ranking, 9 percent, of any institution in America. A low regard of this magnitude cannot be ascribed to one person."
Another centrist Democrat from New England echoed Himes' observations.
"'There’s a degree to which Trump has normalized disreputable behavior among people who’ve been here for a long time,' said Representative Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who came into office two years before Trump’s first term and is now leaving after unsuccessfully running for the Senate," Draper said. "'But it’s also attracted disreputable people. Under Trump, the quality of my colleagues has noticeably decreased.'"
Meanwhile Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) told Draper that "what you see now are too many people who come in viewing Congress as their green screen, and they’re going to make a name for themselves and don’t give a damn about anything else.”
Rep. Julia Brownley (D-CA), an outgoing lawmaker, explained to Draper that "people now want scrappy fighters. The scrappy fighter as opposed to the legislator — scrappy wins.” By contrast Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida argued on X that, despite being characterized as a showboat who panders to Trump (she advocated for him to win a Nobel Peace Prize and have his face carved on Mount Rushmore), "I don’t care who in this chamber hates me for it."
Speaking to Draper she said, regarding her unwillingness to work with the Senate, "Why should we give the Senate a win when they won’t give us one? The craziest thing is how the House leadership will just lie to other members, saying I’m being a troublemaker or obstructionist. I’m just legislating.”