It’s not just vulnerable Republicans in swing districts distancing themselves from their party leader.
As President Donald Trump travels the country touting the “greatest” American economy in history, even senators in safe red states are beginning to push back on his rhetoric and policies.
“I’m not going to tell the voters, ‘Oh, it’s President Biden’s fault, and it’s not that bad, you shouldn’t believe your checkbooks,’” Sen. John Kennedy, whose home state of Louisiana swung for Trump by 22 points in 2024, told reporters before the Senate recessed for the elections.
“I also tell them the truth: The main reason for the resurgence in inflation is the Iran war. I think they appreciate the truth, but they’re angry,” Kennedy told The Washington Sun later. His term is up in 2028.
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Such rhetoric is a surprising twist. Candidates in tough races often break with unpopular presidents, as they are doing this year. Lawmakers who aren’t on the ballot or who occupy safe seats seldom do. But suddenly they are, as if their states might not be as sheltered from the political headwinds sweeping the nation as history suggests, or perhaps they see hints that the winds could keep blowing for the rest of Trump’s term and beyond.
Kennedy is just one example of out-of-cycle Republicans increasingly criticizing Trump as his approval rating continues to drop. At least four other non-threatened GOP senators have split with the president in recent weeks.
Take West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice, who echoed Kennedy’s concerns that voters are frustrated by the cost of living. He told The Washington Sun that “Republicans,” not just the president, have made missteps while speaking with Americans about the economy.
West Virginia favored Trump by over 40 points and Justice’s term is not up until 2031.
“The power bills are high, diesel fuel’s off the chart, gasoline’s off the chart, groceries are up,” he said.
He added that Republicans need to do a better job of messaging on the war in Iran, in particular. If he were president, Justice said he would hold fireside chats to more candidly discuss the reasons behind, and the economic consequences of, the war.
“I would be saying to them: ‘Here was the strategy, here’s what we accomplished,’” Justice said. “We knew that there was a real chance that it would drive gasoline and diesel and fertilizer and all that kind of stuff. We knew that and everything, but we never really dreamed we’d be there this long.”
The economy and war aren’t the only issues on which Republicans have countered the president. Senate Majority Leader John Thune began last week criticizing a slate of Trump campaign ads that seem to have been financed with taxpayer money.
“It’s a great message. I like the message. It shouldn’t have been paid for by taxpayer dollars,” Thune said.
Fellow South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds also denounced the administration’s political advertisements, in addition to the clawback of nearly $1 billion in funding approved by Congress, as well as Trump’s executive action to temporarily expand the import of foreign beef.
When asked by The Sun what spurred his various recent breaks with the president, who won South Dakota by nearly 30 points in 2024, Rounds threw his hands up and shrugged.
Rounds, who is up for reelection this year, pointed to Trump’s announcement on beef imports as a catalyst. Ranching and meatpacking are important industries in South Dakota
“He just recently announced it,” Rounds said. “That’s when we started discussing it. It’s based upon the actions where they were suggesting that they wanted to import beef at a time in which we should be making an American-first push.”
Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) has also been a loud critic of some of the president’s recent political moves, though Trump won Utah by nearly 22 points in 2024 and Curtis is not on the ballot until 2030.
Much like Rounds, Curtis decried Trump’s funding rescissions and taxpayer-funded advertisements. Most notably, he asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Donald Trump Jr. for taking money from a Russian oligarch to pay for some of his wedding festivities last month.
“Believe this, a Russian oligarch paid for a lavish wedding afterparty for Donald Trump Jr.,” Curtis said in a direct-to-camera social media video. “To me, it just stinks. It’s corruption. I don’t like it.”
Curtis released another video Friday, saying Republicans have not done enough to tackle the cost of living. “We’ve not addressed what all of you care about so deeply, and that’s affordability,” Curtis said, recounting the price of gas across his state. “We just have not done a good job.”
Whether those Republicans are bracing for an even more hostile political environment coming their way is an open question, but several typically safe seats have recently become more competitive. Trump won Alaska by 13 points, Ohio by 11 and Texas by 14 in 2024, yet the Republican Party and its allies are spending heavily in those states this year.
That may have caught other politicians’ attention.
“The trend downwards is very clear,” David Karol, a government professor at the University of Maryland, told The Sun. “It’s something that they know and that they’re aware of, and to the extent it makes Trump weaker, it makes people feel more free to separate themselves from some of his particularly unpopular decisions or actions.”
Trump himself seems concerned enough that he is planning rallies in solid-red states like Oklahoma and Alabama in the coming weeks. And some of the lawmakers who have distanced themselves from Trump, including Kennedy, have alluded to their own presidential ambitions.
Still, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), who has repeatedly clashed with the president throughout Trump’s second term and who is retiring this year, told The Sun that he wouldn’t consider these breaks to be a “sea change,” noting that most Senate Republicans have consistently voted alongside the president.
Tillis supports those Republicans separating themselves from Trump, though.
“It’s people really expressing their differences, which I’ve encouraged,” Tillis said. “Because I actually believe that independence and having that image of independence going into this election is critically important to getting Republicans reelected. It’s a simple, practical matter.”
Karol chalked up the rise in part to timing. Trump had an outsized influence in this year’s primaries, successfully ousting Republican lawmakers who had broken with him in the past. Those contests are over, but 2028 still isn’t quite on the horizon yet, Karol said.
“Trump doesn’t want criticism, but to criticize a policy position that is not something that is necessarily near and dear to his heart in a respectful way, I think it’s survivable,” Karol said. “2028 is a long way off.”
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