Vulnerable Republicans are increasingly defying President Trump ahead of the midterms

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Two vulnerable House Republicans from Iowa voted this week for the first time to rein in President Donald Trump’s Iran war powers. A lawmaker from South Florida, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, released an ad saying Trump’s immigration crackdown had “gone too far.” And a bevy of farm-state Republicans, including some in competitive races, recently revolted after Trump paused tariffs on foreign beef .

Across the midterm map, Republicans are finding ways to stand apart from a unpopular president as they scramble to keep their majorities in Congress.

The dynamic reflects how treacherous the political terrain has become for Republicans as the Democratic offensive stretches into deeply red states like Kansas, Texas and Florida. But it also represents a reversal from recent years, as Trump – who is famously vindictive against critics in his own party – and his political operation haven’t targeted defectors.

“It’s definitely a different Trump than what we saw in the first administration where he didn’t care about burning his relationships with fellow Republicans,” a GOP operative, granted anonymity to speak freely, told CNN. “I think he recognizes he needs to win and to do that he needs to give some more flexibility to our members.”

One Republican operative in a competitive statewide race said there’s been no “edict” that it is OK to split with Trump, summing up the White House’s attitude as, “Do what you gotta do.”

The White House referred comment to the Republican National Committee. An RNC spokeswoman, Natalie Baldassarre, said in a statement that Republicans are “unified and rowing in the same direction” but also acknowledged the political reality of the moment.

“At the end of the day, we care about winning, and these candidates need to run the races necessary to accomplish that,” Baldassarre said.

After voting Tuesday to limit Trump’s war powers, Iowa GOP Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks issued statements that did not mention Trump but spoke bluntly about the conflict. Miller-Meeks said she would “not vote to keep our soldiers in an open-ended war, with Iowans paying too much at the pump.” They were among seven Republicans to vote for the war powers resolution, the most yet.

Trump has yet to say anything about Nunn or Miller-Meeks publicly.

“I think when you do things out of principle, the president certainly understand that,” Miller-Meeks told CNN before casting her vote.

Trump responded to Salazar on Friday, saying he still backs her for reelection but disagrees with her criticism.

“She got a little bit soft on the border – I understand that, I understand that – but I just don’t happen to be there,” Trump said.

Not all battleground Republicans see distancing themselves from the president as a viable strategy.

“President Trump is an independent thinker. And what really deeply disturbs me is a lot of my colleagues are kind of trying to distance themselves from the president for political purposes which I think is dumb,” GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin told CNN.

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Even before this week’s striking GOP defections, many Republicans in battleground races have sought to present daylight between themselves and the president. While Trump has called the issue of affordability a “hoax,” they speak directly about lowering costs. Some have pushed back on his escalation of a trade war with Canada. And they have found more local issues where they can claim the mantle of independence.

During a recent debate, Arizona Rep. Juan Ciscomani touted his vote earlier this year to override Trump’s veto of a water infrastructure bill. “That takes some courage,” Ciscomani said.

Earlier this month, Nunn said he was direct in his criticism of some of the administration’s decisions on this front in a private meeting with Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and even adding he brought those concerns directly to Trump at a dinner hosted at the White House for battleground Republicans.

An especially revealing example has unfolded in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, where the GOP nominee, Brandon Herrera , started pushing back months ago against the administration’s plans to build a border wall in Big Bend National Park. He met with administration officials, held a community forum about the construction and attended a rally against it at the Texas Capitol where he declared “nobody” wants it.

The administration paused the project last month. An aide to Herrera’s campaign credited the administration with having been “consistently receptive … rather than being obstinate.”

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The administration appears to be especially understanding of GOP anxiety around the war. Vice President JD Vance has struck an accommodating tone about the war’s political peril , recently telling GOP lawmakers they need to “level” with voters about their frustrations.

“Even if you don’t agree with us on every issue, the other party is consumed by craziness,” the vice president said during a podcast taping Tuesday, echoing his speech at last week’s midterm convention in Dallas.

Vance recently campaigned with Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who’s in a surprisingly competitive race in his solidly red state. Marshall recently wrote the administration pleading for relief from rising diesel prices – a product of the war – calling it “a sudden and largely unforeseen cost shock.”

GOP Rep. Tom Barrett of Michigan voted for the third time to limit Trump’s Iran war powers in late July, but just four days later, Barrett stood at Trump’s side during a rally in his own Michigan battleground district, basking in the president’s endorsement and sending back kind words of his own.

Trump’s handling of the war remains deeply unpopular across the country. A recent Quinnipiac University survey found that voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of the situation in Iran by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

Barrett is an outlier among GOP lawmakers, even those in tough races. Most have stood by Trump over the war, gambling that voters will accept economic pain if it means Iran is prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons.

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That’s not to say Trump always make it easy on Republicans. He veered off their preferred message in recent weeks by renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. He also floated renaming New Mexico as “New America,” putting a top GOP recruit for a House seat there, Greg Cunningham, in an awkward spot. Cunningham downplayed it as “satire” while Democrats pounced.

“It’s not that they’re pushing us politically or demanding loyalty on certain things, they’re just doing things without consideration of how it will impact certain districts,” said one Republican operative working on a competitive House race.

Even when Trump has been his most outright upset with Republican lawmakers this year, he hasn’t followed through. Back in February, Trump threatened to primary anyone who voted against him to effectively repeal his tariffs on Canada. That public posturing did not seem to reflect the behind-the-scenes dynamics. Speaker Mike Johnson said at the time that Trump was “not upset” with House Republicans who have voted to curb his executive authority on tariffs, and that “he understands what is going on.”

There were six Republicans who defied Trump on that vote, and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, an outlier in his long-running personal feud with the president, was the only one to receive a primary challenge.

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Trump’s recent escalation of his trade war with Canada has been especially trying for Sen. Susan Collins, seeking her sixth term in a northern border state – one that Trump lost in 2024 by seven points.

Collins has opposed a handful of Trump nominees, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; voted against the president’s signature law last year, and has voted multiple times to rein in the emergency powers he has used to issue tariffs.

Recently, Collins successfully sought tariff exemptions for goods including road salt and cement. Collins’ Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, sarcastically thanked her and asked, “What about everything else?”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) acknowledged this week that candidates may diverge with Trump on trade, telling reporters that candidates will “have to handle … that issue in a way that makes sense for their individual states.”

“Senator Collins has worked with five different Presidents throughout her Senate tenure and she has taken the same approach with each of them including President Trump,” Collins campaign spokeswoman Blake Kernen said in a statement. “When she agrees with an effort she will support it; when she disagrees, she does not hesitate to oppose it and to advocate for what she believes is the right outcome for Maine and for America.”

Vance has visited Maine twice in recent months, and each time, Collins has skipped his appearances, citing scheduling conflicts.

That has not stopped Vance from praising the longtime blue-state incumbent – and her independent streak.

“She sometimes makes my job just a little bit harder,” Vance said last month in Brewer. “But she makes it harder because she is coming to work every single day and fighting not for a political party or not for any abstraction. … She fights for the great people of Maine.”

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本周，两名来自爱荷华州、选情岌岌可危的共和党众议员首次投票支持限制特朗普总统的伊朗战争权力。来自南佛罗里达州的众议员玛丽亚·埃尔维拉·萨拉查发布了一则广告，称特朗普的移民打压“做得太过火了”。此外，包括一些选情胶着的共和党人在内的众多农业州共和党人，在特朗普暂停对外国牛肉征收关税后，也纷纷表示反对。

在中期选举中，共和党人正努力寻找与不受欢迎的总统划清界限的方法，同时竭力保住他们在国会的多数席位。

这种动态反映出，随着民主党攻势蔓延至堪萨斯州、德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州等传统共和党州，共和党的政治处境已变得多么险恶。但这同时也与近年来的情况截然相反，因为以对党内批评者报复心强而闻名的特朗普及其政治团队并没有将目标对准叛党者。

一位不愿透露姓名的共和党人士告诉CNN：“这绝对不是我们看到的第一任特朗普，他当时根本不在乎与共和党同僚的关系。我认为他意识到自己必须赢得大选，而要做到这一点，他需要给予我们的党员更大的灵活性。”

一位参与竞争激烈的全州竞选的共和党人士表示，并没有“法令”允许与特朗普决裂，他总结白宫的态度是：“做你该做的。”

白宫将置评请求转给了共和党全国委员会。共和党全国委员会发言人娜塔莉·巴尔达萨雷在一份声明中表示，共和党人“团结一致，朝着同一个方向努力”，但也承认当前的政治现实。

“归根结底，我们关心的是胜利，这些候选人需要参加必要的竞选才能实现这一目标，”巴尔达萨雷说。

周二投票限制特朗普的战争权力后，爱荷华州共和党众议员扎克·纳恩和玛丽安内特·米勒-米克斯发表声明，声明中虽然没有提及特朗普，但直言不讳地谈到了这场冲突。米勒-米克斯表示，她“不会投票让我们的士兵继续卷入一场无休止的战争，让爱荷华州的民众为此付出高昂的油价”。他们是七位投票支持这项战争权力决议的共和党议员之一，也是迄今为止支持该决议人数最多的一次。

特朗普至今尚未公开谈论过努恩或米勒-米克斯。

“我认为，当你出于原则做事时，总统肯定会理解的，”米勒-米克斯在投票前告诉 CNN。

特朗普周五回应了萨拉查，称他仍然支持她连任，但不同意她的批评。

“她在边境问题上有点软弱——我理解，我理解——但我碰巧不在那里，”特朗普说。

并非所有摇摆州的共和党人都认为与总统保持距离是一种可行的策略。

“特朗普总统是一位独立思考者。真正让我深感不安的是，我的很多同事出于政治目的试图与总统保持距离，我认为这很愚蠢，”威斯康星州共和党众议员德里克·范·奥登告诉CNN。

凯文迪奇/盖蒂图片社北美/盖蒂图片社

甚至在本周共和党出现令人震惊的倒戈事件之前，许多在关键摇摆州选区参选的共和党人就已试图与总统划清界限。尽管特朗普称住房负担能力问题是“骗局”，但他们却直接谈论降低成本。一些人反对他升级与加拿大的贸易战。他们还找到了更多可以标榜自身独立立场的地方性议题。

在最近的一次辩论中，亚利桑那州众议员胡安·西斯科马尼吹嘘了他今年早些时候投票推翻特朗普对一项水利基础设施法案的否决。“这需要一些勇气，”西斯科马尼说。

本月初，纳恩表示，他在与贸易代表杰米森·格里尔的私人会面中，直接批评了政府在这一领域的一些决定，甚至还补充说，他在白宫为摇摆州共和党人举办的晚宴上，直接向特朗普提出了这些担忧。

德克萨斯州第23选区发生的一件事尤其发人深省。该选区的共和党候选人布兰登·埃雷拉几个月前就开始反对政府在大弯国家公园修建边境墙的计划。他会见了政府官员，举办了一场关于修建边境墙的社区论坛，并参加了在德克萨斯州议会大厦举行的反对集会，他在集会上宣称“没有人”想要这堵墙。

上个月，政府暂停了该项目。埃雷拉竞选团队的一名助手称赞政府“始终保持开放的态度……而不是固执己见”。

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政府似乎对共和党人围绕战争的焦虑情绪格外理解。副总统万斯对战争的政治风险采取了较为宽容的态度，他最近告诉共和党议员，他们需要坦诚地向选民表达他们的不满。

“即使你不同意我们在每个问题上的观点，对方也陷入了疯狂，”副总统在周二录制播客节目时说道，这与他上周在达拉斯举行的中期选举大会上的讲话遥相呼应。

万斯最近与堪萨斯州参议员罗杰·马歇尔一起竞选，马歇尔在他所在的这个铁杆共和党州正面临着一场出人意料的激烈选战。马歇尔最近致信政府，恳求其缓解柴油价格上涨的问题——这是战争的产物——他称之为“突如其来且很大程度上无法预料的成本冲击”。

密歇根州共和党众议员汤姆·巴雷特在7月下旬第三次投票限制特朗普的伊朗战争权力，但仅仅四天后，巴雷特就站在特朗普身边，在他自己的密歇根州关键选区举行的一次集会上，享受着总统的支持，并表达了自己的友好之情。

特朗普对伊朗战争的处理方式在全国范围内仍然极不受欢迎。昆尼皮亚克大学最近的一项调查发现，超过2比1的选民对特朗普处理伊朗局势的方式表示不满。

巴雷特在共和党议员中是个异类，即便是在那些选情胶着的议员中也是如此。大多数共和党议员在战争问题上都支持特朗普，他们赌的是，如果能阻止伊朗获得核武器，选民们会接受经济上的痛苦。

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这并非意味着特朗普总是对共和党人手下留情。最近几周，他将安大略湖更名为美国湖，这与共和党人希望传达的信息背道而驰。他还曾提议将新墨西哥州更名为“新美国”，这让共和党在该州众议院席位的热门候选人格雷格·坎宁安陷入了尴尬境地。坎宁安轻描淡写地称之为“讽刺”，而民主党人则抓住机会猛烈抨击。

一位参与竞争激烈的众议院选举的共和党人士表示：“他们并不是在政治上对我们施压，也不是要求我们在某些事情上效忠，他们只是在做事时没有考虑这会对某些选区产生怎样的影响。”

即使今年特朗普对共和党议员表现出最明显的不满，他也没有付诸行动。早在二月份，特朗普就威胁要对任何投票反对他废除对加拿大关税的共和党议员发起党内初选。但这种公开姿态似乎与幕后情况并不相符。众议院议长迈克·约翰逊当时表示，特朗普“并不生气”，因为众议院共和党人投票限制了他在关税方面的行政权力，“他明白发生了什么”。

在那次投票中，有六名共和党人反对特朗普，而共和党众议员托马斯·马西（Thomas Massie）——他在与总统长期的个人不和中是个异类——是唯一一位在党内初选中受到挑战的人。

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特朗普最近升级与加拿大的贸易战，对寻求第六个任期的参议员苏珊·柯林斯来说尤其艰难，她所在的北部边境州在2024年被特朗普以7个百分点的差距击败。

科林斯曾反对特朗普提名的几位人选，包括国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯；去年投票反对总统的标志性法案，并多次投票限制他用来征收关税的紧急权力。

最近，柯林斯成功为包括道路用盐和水泥在内的商品争取到了关税豁免。柯林斯的民主党对手特洛伊·杰克逊讽刺地感谢了她，并问道：“那其他东西呢？”

参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩（南达科他州共和党籍）本周承认，候选人在贸易问题上可能与特朗普的立场相左，他告诉记者，候选人“必须以适合各自州的方式处理……这个问题”。

“科林斯参议员在其参议员任期内曾与五位不同的总统共事，她对每位总统都采取了相同的态度，包括特朗普总统，”科林斯竞选发言人布莱克·克南在一份声明中表示。“如果她认同某项举措，她就会支持；如果她不认同，她会毫不犹豫地反对，并倡导她认为对缅因州和美国最有利的结果。”

近几个月来，Vance 曾两次到访缅因州，但每次 Collins 都以日程冲突为由缺席了他的露面。

但这并没有阻止万斯赞扬这位长期担任民主党州议员的人士及其独立精神。

“她有时会让我的工作变得更难一些，”范斯上个月在布鲁尔说道。“但她让我的工作更难，是因为她每天都来上班，不是为了某个政党，也不是为了任何抽象的概念……她是在为缅因州的人民而战。”