'Screaming mess': Senate Republican laments things won’t 'get any better' for GOP in 2025

Republicans may be about to begin the new year with control of the White House, both chambers of Congress and a 6-3 Supreme Court majority, but one GOP senator is still predicting plenty of headaches for her party in 2025.

Semafor's Burgess Everett reported Friday that significant challenges are already waiting for the incoming GOP trifecta, and so far they've been unable to even come together on a plan to keep the government open. The federal government is scheduled to shut down at 12:01 AM Saturday morning unless Congress can get a funding bill to President Joe Biden's desk in the coming hours. Any bill that comes out of the GOP-controlled House will have to be approved by the Democratic-run Senate, which isn't expected to entertain the kind of steep budget cuts that hardline House Republicans are demanding.

And because the most recent negotiations suggest Republicans are only willing to entertain a short-term package with just three more months of funding, President-elect Donald Trump's first 100 days could very well be spent squabbling over federal appropriations rather than enacting his agenda. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) lamented that the GOP's current woes may be just the beginning of its problems as 2024 comes to a close.

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“One of the things that I’ve learned about myself, the older I get, the more sanguine [I am] ... because otherwise I’d be a screaming mess,” Murkowski told Semafor. “It’s not going to get better, like early in the year particularly. Anyway.”

Everett also pointed out that aside from contentious debate over government funding, the party is also fractured over some of Trump's more controversial Cabinet picks, like Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. All eyes will be on more moderate senators like Murkowski, as well as Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) who could sink any of Trump's picks with their votes, assuming all Democrats are in opposition.

While the House will have a Republican majority for another two years, it will be even more tenuous than the current House GOP majority, and could be as small as one seat assuming Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) end up becoming the next United Nations ambassador and National Security Advisor, respectively. Because Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is leaving Congress in January, and because special elections to fill vacant Republican seats will take several months, passing Trump's agenda through Congress will likely be an uphill battle.

Other obstacles standing in the way of the GOP's policy agenda lie outside the control of elected Republican officials. As billionaire Elon Musk demonstrated this week by opposing House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) government funding bill, legislative negotiations can be upended overnight. Democrats and their allies have even begun referring to Musk as "president," which prompted Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt to insist that Trump alone was in charge of setting the Republican agenda.

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Click here to read Semafor's report in full.