U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he holds an umbrella after disembarking Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, U.S., August 2, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer
If there's anything indicating President Donald Trump is losing his stranglehold on the Republican Party it's his failure to get Todd Blanche nominated as the attorney general without a written guarantee that the IRS slush fund is officially dead.
Blanche caved into demands by Republican senators over the weekend, and it prompted a larger discussion about whether Trump is losing his control over the GOP or if it's a fluke. The New Republic'sGreg Sargent spoke with writer Emma Janssen for the Monday episode of his podcast and the two debated whether the Blanche compromise is the beginning of something larger.
Janssen explained that the end of primary season is at hand and Trump's power comes from his ability to mobilize his base in Republican primary elections.
"This major source of power for him to enforce his agenda and elect the people that he wants elected, or make sure that the people he doesn’t like don’t get elected—that might actually be the more important part. That tool for him is disappearing now that the primaries are coming to a close," Janssen explained.
"And so I think it’s exactly what you said. It’s a grip on power. And we might start seeing more resistance from his own party. I mean, I wouldn’t put a ton of money on that, but he’s losing this tool. And that could open up a space for more Republicans to jump ship on a war powers resolution, for example," she added.
Sargent called it a kind of "split screen," where one side shows Trump's control over the GOP while non-GOP voters are increasingly furious with his policies.
"He’s just able to get Republican voters to stampede away from their own representative or senator and go back whoever Trump says they should vote for instead," Sargent said. "So, you know, I don’t know how well that reflects on these Republican voters—not very well—but it surely shows that Trump does wield some real power over them."
On the flip side, he continued, Trump doesn't have the control over GOP legislators the way he once did.
"And that drives him absolutely crazy. And he can’t stand that. So he won’t let them get distance from him in order to position themselves for the midterms, which they absolutely desperately have to do," Sargent said. "I really wonder whether Trump in his head doesn’t understand that the midterm electorate is a different thing than the Republican primary electorate."
Where that comes into play is whether, after primary elections have finished, Republicans are going to be more willing to stand up against Trump's unpopular war in Iran.
Janssen noted that more and more Republicans are joining recent Democratic bills that have more teeth when it comes to withdrawing from the war, which is also growing increasingly unpopular with Americans.