President Donald Trump sits while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stands by his side in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., November 17, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
The Republican Party is "running scared," according to political commentator Jennifer Rubin, as voter approval turns "horrific" in the face of Donald Trump's escalating "brutality.
Rubin appeared on The New Republic's "Daily Blast" podcast on Friday, where host Greg Sargent pressed her about the increasingly negative reaction to Trump's immigration crackdown from the wider electorate, which has prompted members of the GOP to push back against him and his administration.
"People don’t like brutality," Rubin said. "They don’t like these extreme measures. People may have voted to get rid of the 'worst of the worst,' but they didn’t vote to get rid of grandma. They didn’t vote to have a five-year-old taken into custody, and they sure didn’t vote to have people murdered on the street."
Trump's approval on immigration has typically been his strongest out of any issue, but it began to slip when he first sent federal agents in force to Los Angeles last summer. In the wake of the massive recent operation in Minnesota's Twin Cities area, which saw two U.S. citizens get gunned down by ICE and CBP agents, the downward spiral of public opinion has only gotten faster, prompting major criticism from GOP lawmakers who have typically been deferential to Trump.
Sargent highlighted several examples of this recent pushback, including Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, who said what Trump is doing on immigration is “not working.” New Jersey Republican Jose Arango said, “We’re losing in the public relations campaign.” Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Wisconsin Republican, called the most recent shooting in Minneapolis "murder." Texas Gov. Greg AbbottGreg Abbott also suggested that it is time for Trump to “recalibrate.”
In response, Rubin argued that Republicans are seeing the "horrific" public opinion responses to Trump's immigration operations, and are reacting out of "panic."
"They are in panic," Rubin said. "The elected Republicans — whether it’s Rand Paul, who now admits that Kristi Noem is a 'despicable liar,' or whether it’s city mayors or governors or, frankly, members of Congress — are now running in the other direction. They see the polls, which are horrific. They saw what happened in 2025 in the election and they understand they have blown it."
She continued: "According to Chris Murphy, whom I spoke to earlier today, his colleagues report that this past weekend they received the largest number of calls to their offices ever. And that’s considering healthcare, that’s considering COVID, a zillion other issues over the past decade or so. This has really touched a nerve and they are running scared."