President-elect Trump is testing the loyalty of Senate Republicans by asking them to allow him to make executive and judicial appointments during recess without the advice and consent of the Senate.
Republicans are also counting on Trump to pardon many of the people convicted of crimes related to January 6, 2021, a move that a number of Republican senators who witnessed the Capitol insurrection would not approve of.
And Trump has threatened to impose steep tariffs on imports that many Republican lawmakers fear would hurt the economy.
“He has always pushed the limits of his power as president, and Congress is a separate branch of government that must assert its authority when warranted,” said a Senate Republican aide, who argued that Republican senators would assert their independence if Trump goes too far.
But Senate Republicans have been extremely reluctant to publicly criticize Trump after he won a stunning victory on Election Day.
The expansive majority of Senate Republicans agree with Trump on the biggest legislative item on the agenda, extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“There are issues on which Republicans will disagree with Trump, but they are unlikely to oppose his central agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, appointing new judges, cutting military aid to Ukraine and cracking down on immigration,” Darrell said West, a senior fellow specializing in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
“If lawmakers get out of line, he will threaten to support a priority challenge for them in two years. This threat will silence many possible critics,” he said.
Just days after his massive Election Day victories, Trump sought to assert his authority over Senate Republicans by insisting on choosing the next Senate majority leader agrees to restore its authority to set recess datessomething Senate leaders of both parties have agreed to curb over the last decade.
The three candidates vying to become the next Senate Majority Leader — Republican Sen. John Thune (S.D.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) — immediately agreed that Trump should have more power to fill key slots.
And the show of force has Republican strategists wondering how else Trump might try to flex his political muscles and test his loyalty on Capitol Hill.
A GOP strategist said Trump could call for eliminating the filibuster if his agenda fails in the Senate, which he did in June 2018.
“I can easily imagine this problem occurring again,” said the strategist. “If Trump says Senate Republicans are hindering our agenda by not abolishing the filibuster, all of his grassroots supporters will say, ‘Damn right!'”
Trump will soon test his Republican colleagues in the Senate in other ways.
Republican consultants and strategists predict he will pardon many of the people convicted of crimes related to January 6, 2021.
A Senate Republican aide warned that such a move “will anger many Republicans on the Hill, particularly those who were in the building on Jan. 6.”
One of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), warned in 2022 that pardoning people who stormed the Capitol was “a bad idea.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said at the time that while Trump had the constitutional authority to issue blanket pardons to Jan. 6 criminals, he warned, “There was an insurrection and I think these people need to be punished.”
Republican strategists warn that Trump’s tariff policies will become one of the most contentious issues between the up-to-date president and Senate Republicans.
Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) told reporters in September that he was “not a fan of tariffs.”
“They are raising prices for American consumers. “I’m more of a free-trade type Republican who remembers how many jobs are created by the exports we do,” he said, echoing a view shared by many Republican senators.
West, the Brookings Institution expert, said Trump’s threat to impose high tariffs poses a earnest political problem for Republican lawmakers.
“The tariff issue will be difficult for Republicans because they are inflationary, and Republicans know that Democrats will come after them if inflation rises again.” That would jeopardize their slim majority in the House of Representatives in 2026,” he said.
Further points of friction include Trump’s plans to deport millions of immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border under President Biden Crackdowns on immigrants in the workplace and packing a budget reconciliation bill with ambitious reforms that would likely face procedural hurdles in the Senate.
Mass deportations would place an immediate burden on companies that apply migrants living in the country illegally as a source of budget-friendly labor. An expert from the Center for Immigration Studies testified before a House committee last year that there are now as many as 9 million such immigrants in the country’s workforce.
Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, warned last month that employers were “very concerned” about losing a vast portion of their workforce.
And Trump’s failure to sign a legally required ethics pledge on potential conflicts of interest — something that was due by Oct. 1 — will put Republican lawmakers on the defensive, as Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) are already accusing his transition team of breaking the law .
Some of Trump’s more controversial potential nominees could face opposition from Senate Republicans, particularly Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose controversial views on health and science in the public health sector will raise alarm if he is appointed to a senior position at the Department of Health and Human Services.
If Trump nominates Kennedy, who said last week that “entire departments” of the Food and Drug Administration “have to go,” it would put pressure on Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions subcommittee who would have to address it set. These include Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), both of whom are up for re-election in 2026.
While Trump helped give them a majority of at least 52 seats, this could threaten that majority in 2026 or 2028 if Senate Republicans allow themselves to be overwhelmed by Trump.
