{"id":8732,"date":"2026-05-22T14:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8732"},"modified":"2026-05-22T14:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:32:12","slug":"pushed-to-the-limit-republicans-show-rare-defiance-to-trumps-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8732","title":{"rendered":"Pushed to the limit, Republicans show rare defiance to Trump\u2019s demands"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By LISA MASCARO and JOEY CAPPELLETTI<\/strong><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The day arrived when the Senate just said, No.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s political revenge tour met its potential match this week as angry, upset Republican senators, pushed to a breaking point by his seemingly insatiable and outlandish demands \u2014 particularly a $1.776 billion fund for Jan. 6 rioters and others he believes were wrongly prosecuted \u2014 did the unthinkable.<\/p>\n

Read more When should you get a mammogram? Conflicting advice makes it hard to know<\/a><\/p>\n

They simply refused, closed up shop, and went home.<\/p>\n

The moment was as rare as it was daring, a sudden flex from the Congress that has become a shell of its former self as a coequal branch, the Republican majority almost always more willing to accommodate the Republican president than to confront him.<\/p>\n

The result left in shambles, for now, the GOP\u2019s top priority of passing a roughly $70 billion budget package that would fuel Trump\u2019s immigration and deportation operations for the remainder of his presidential term, into 2029. The voting was postponed until Congress resumes next month, blowing Trump\u2019s June 1 deadline to have it on his desk.<\/p>\n

Trump, asked during an event at the Oval Office if he was losing control of the Senate, shrugged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t know,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

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It all caps a bruising week after the president swept midterm primary elections, taking down one Republican after another \u2014 Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky, and endorsing the challenger to Sen. John Cornyn in Texas \u2014 turning the might of his Make America Great Again movement against those who have stuck to their own views, rather than yield to his.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just the Senate. In the Republican-led House, for the first time this year, enough GOP lawmakers broke ranks to signal support for a war powers resolution from Democrats designed to halt Trump\u2019s military action in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson postponed voting until he could ensure an outcome that avoids confronting the president.<\/p>\n

The endgame leaves Trump and the party exposed in new ways.<\/p>\n

While the president is winning with his handpicked candidates, many are untested heading into general elections this fall. Trump\u2019s own approval rating sits at a low point, and he is spending his political capital, alienating his would-be allies and threatening to derail GOP priorities as they try to persuade voters to keep them in office.<\/p>\n

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