Republicans rode President Donald Trump’s coattails to victory in the House and Senate in 2024, and with control of all three federal elective branches Dispatch Senior Editor Michael Warren says they should’ve owned the place.The southern border is closed, said Warren, and Republicans had big plans under Trump, but nothing they’ve produced since 2024 is going to last, and now the party is virtually circling the drain.“What, exactly, has all of this been for?” asked Warren, a former senior writer with the Weekly Standard. “That question looms over not just the DHS funding impasse but so much of Trump’s chaotic second term so far. The answer ought to be depressing for the president’s supporters: not much.”Whatever boon Warren expected from renewing Trump’s first-term tax cuts has been “muddled by the president’s spasmodic approach to the economically dubious policy of tariffs and trade protectionism,” he said. Similarly, Trump’s success at closing the border has been hopelessly marred by violence committed by ICE agents and the new system’s bungled rollout.“The political result of all of this is abysmal approval ratings for Trump and the sense that his party is on the path to a wipeout at the polls in November — and with very little in the way of lasting achievements,” said Warren. Such low returns haven’t been the rule in past election sweeps. When President Barack Obama’s party got “shellacked,” at least the Democrat Party walked away with “a massive health care law that bears his name, codified insurance coverage for preexisting conditions, and has been largely untouchable despite Republicans railing against it for years afterward,” said Darren.“Identifying a similar consolation prize will be a challenge, if and when the Republicans lose their narrow majority in 2026,” said Darren. “It’s unlikely Trump’s only notable legislative priority, the SAVE America Act, can pass the Senate, where it’s currently languishing. … Otherwise, there’s no significant legislation, past or future. No codified change to domestic policy that will transform the country and fulfill Republican hopes and dreams. No evident payoff to spending down the governing party’s political capital.”“To paraphrase The Office’s Creed Bratton, if Trump and the Republicans can’t create something enduring with all this power, then what’s this all been about? What are they working toward?” said Darren.
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