PRESIDENT TRUMP has run into conflict this week with members of his own party, as some Republicans worry about government overreach.
Trump has received GOP blowback on issues including corporate governance, immigration, free speech and crime, with some small-government conservatives expressing unease with the president’s recent displays of power.
Here are five areas Trump has faced GOP pushback in recent days:
FREE SPEECH
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to prosecute cases in which individuals desecrate the U.S. flag.
Shortly after, a man was arrested for setting fire to an American flag in a federal park outside the White House.
Conservatives, who accused former President Biden’s administration of stifling political speech, pointed to remarks from former conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who disliked flag burning but defended the right to do it.
“If I were king, I would not allow people to go about burning the American flag,” Scalia said in 2012. “However, we have a First Amendment, which says that the right of free speech shall not be abridged. And it is addressed, in particular, to speech critical of the government. I mean, that was the main kind of speech that tyrants would seek to suppress. Burning the flag is a form of expression. Speech doesn’t just mean written words or oral words… And burning a flag is a symbol that expresses an idea.”
Vice President Vance on Tuesday defended the executive order, posting on X: “A few things: 1) Antonin Scalia was a great Supreme Court Justice and a genuinely kind and decent person. 2) The President’s EO is consistent with Texas v. Johnson. 3) Texas v. Johnson was wrong and William Rehnquist was right.”
CRIME
The crackdown on flag burning also goes to Trump’s push for law and order, underscored by his deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.
The president has threatened to send troops to additional cities run by Democrats.
While many in the GOP support the push to crack down on crime, not all Republicans are on board with Trump’s unilateral deployment of National Guard troops against the wishes of state and local leaders.
“I do not think that we should be sending National Guard into other cities unless the governor, unless the governor [asks],” Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) said at a Monday town hall.
Trump on Monday appeared to back off his immediate threat of sending troops into additional American cities.
“In a certain way you really want to be asked to go,” Trump said. “I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians.”
“I don’t like going to a town, city, place, a state, and then be criticized by some corrupt or incompetent governor where crime is rampant,” he added.
COMPANY STAKES
Trump’s announcement that the federal government would take a 10 percent stake in the chipmaker Intel — a move supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — drew the ire of conservatives, who believe the government should stay out of corporate boardrooms.
“I don’t care if it’s a dollar or a billion-dollar stake,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told journalist Major Garrett.
“That starts feeling like a semi state-owned enterprise à la CCCP,” Tillis added, referring to the acronym for the USSR.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) posted on X: “Big news ≠ Good news. State-sponsored capitalism? America will not outperform China by being more like China.”
Trump’s move was not confined to Intel. The government also reached a separate deal with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, which will have them pay the U.S. government 15 percent of their revenue from AI-chip sales to China.
The Hill’s Alexander Bolton writes: “Conservative Republican critics of the Intel deal warn it’s another step toward ‘socialism’ that undermines the free market and sets a precedent Democrats could exploit when they return to power.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick denied allegations of socialism, telling Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that it’s “fair and smart” to give American taxpayers “equity” in Intel in return for billions of dollars in government investment.
Lutnick said the government is also “thinking about” taking stakes in other industries, including in some defense contractors.
“There’s a monstrous discussion about defense,” Lutnick told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The Hill’s Emily Brooks writes: “It’s a major development in the battle for the dominant economic philosophy on the political right as free-marketers and populists duke it out over the appropriate level of government intervention in the age of Trump and beyond.”
IMMIGRATION
Trump is also facing backlash from the MAGA right after saying he plans to allow 600,000 students from China into the U.S.
“I hear so many stories about, ‘We’re not going to allow their students,’” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re going to allow their students to come in. We’re going to allow it. It’s very important — 600,000 students. It’s very important.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) responded over X:
“We should not let in 600,000 CHINESE students to attend American colleges and universities that may be loyal to the CCP,” she said. “Why are we allowing 600,000 students from China to replace our American student’s opportunities? We should never allow that. And we need more trade school graduates.”
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he planned to “aggressively” revoke visas from Chinese students.
PROCESS
Trump is further embroiled in a battle with Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who insists on honoring a longstanding tradition in the Senate that allows home-state senators to veto nominees to district courts and U.S. attorneys’ offices.
Trump on Monday said he would take legal action to get around the so-called “blue slips.”
“I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator,” Trump wrote Sunday in a post on Truth Social.
Grassley pushed back on Trump’s criticism.
“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv [have] the votes to get out of cmte [committee],” Grassley posted on X.
“As chairman I set Pres Trump noms up for SUCCESS NOT FAILURE,” he added.
💡Perspectives:
• The Washington Post: Donald Trump vs. Antonin Scalia.
• New York Post: Trump’s industrial policy is realism, not socialism.
• The Atlantic: Trump’s right-wing socialism.
• The Guardian: Trump is wrong about crime – but right about the fear of it.
• The Ankler: Hollywood Democrats vanish — at the worst time.
Read more:
• Duffy threatens states’ funding over truck drivers’ English proficiency.
• Trump threatens tariffs on countries with digital taxes.
• Trump plans to cancel another offshore wind project.
• President ratchets up ‘blue slip’ battle with Grassley.
• Trump vows lawsuits against California redistricting, blue slips.
CATCH UP QUICK
• The Trump administration is threatening to strip millions in federal grant funding from dozens of states whose sex education programs include information about transgender people.
• A federal judge threw out the Justice Department’s lawsuit against all 15 federal district judges in Maryland over an order that slowed the government’s speedy deportation efforts, calling the administration’s attacks on the judiciary “unprecedented and unfortunate.”
• Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged to be married.
NEWS THIS AFTERNOON
Indiana delegation heads to White House amid redistricting push
A group of Indiana Republican state lawmakers gathered at the White House on Tuesday amid President Trump’s push for red states to redraw their congressional maps to make them more favorable for the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Indiana’s state House speaker Todd Huston (R) is among those in Washington. Vice President Vance met with Gov. Mike Braun (R) earlier this month amid speculation the Hoosier State could follow efforts in Texas and California to redraw its maps.
Not all of Indiana’s GOP delegation made the trip, with state Sen. Jim Tomes (R) telling State Affairs that redistricting “is something we don’t need to do.”
“I’m not going to D.C.,” Tomes added. “I wouldn’t go out to D.C. under a court order.”
ELSEWHERE…
California Republicans announced a second legal challenge to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) effort to redraw congressional lines in the state.
Trump has vowed to sue California, which plans to hold a special election in the fall to implement new maps that are more favorable to Democrats.
MEANWHILE…
Democrats are looking to flip Republican-leaning state Senate seats in Iowa and Georgia on Tuesday night.
The Hill’s Jared Gans has the rundown on tonight’s special elections.
💡Perspectives:
• The Hill: Mail ballots are not a threat to democracy.
• Washington Examiner: Why Abrego Garcia is still important.
• New York: For Dems, ignoring polls more perilous than relying on them.
• The Nation: Minnesota Dems at war over the “Mamdani of Minneapolis.”
Read more:
• Texas House GOP vote against punishments for quorum breakers.
• GOP redistricting gives Republican edge, but no guarantee in House battle.
• Judge rules Utah’s map must be redrawn for the 2026 elections.
IN OTHER NEWS
Roundup: District’s no-killings streak ends after 12 days
A man was killed in Washington, D.C., early Tuesday, marking the first apparent homicide reported in the city in 12 days.
President Trump said later in the day that he will push for the death penalty in cases of murder in the nation’s capital.
“Anybody murders something in the capital, capital punishment, capital capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital — Washington, D.C. — we’re going to be seeking the death penalty and that’s a very strong preventative,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting.
The Trump administration sees its troop surge and federal takeover of the Washington, D.C., police department as a resounding success.
The White House said this week that more than 1,000 arrests have been made in the District since the law enforcement surge went into effect earlier this month.
The latest Harvard Caps/Harris poll found that more than half of respondents said Trump’s actions to reduce crime in D.C. are warranted.
Trump and blue state governors have been in a war of words over crime, with the Democrats warning the White House not to send National Guard troops into their cities.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore are among the Democrats who have battled Trump in recent days, raising their profiles ahead of potential runs for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary.
“Mr. President, do not come to Chicago,” Pritzker said at a Monday press conference. “You are neither wanted here nor needed here.”
Trump on Tuesday said Pritzker should be begging for him to send in the National Guard.
“You’d think Illinois, they have such a problem with crime…he should be calling me and he should saying to me, ‘can you send over the troops please’?,” Trump said. “It’s out of control.”
ELSEWHERE…
Federal Reserve board of governors member Lisa Cook said she would not leave her position after Trump moved to fire her over mortgage fraud allegations.
“President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” she said in a statement. “I will not resign.”
“I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022,” Cook added.
The president can only fire a Fed board governor for “due cause.” Trump’s effort to oust Cook comes after his ally Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, accused Cook of mortgage fraud for listing two primary residences in documents.
Democrats are apoplectic, accusing Trump of impinging on the Fed’s independence.
“The illegal attempt to fire Lisa Cook is the latest example of a desperate President searching for a scapegoat to cover for his own failure to lower costs for Americans,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “It’s an authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act, and must be overturned in court.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the move during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
“The Federal Reserve’s independence comes form a political arrangement between itself and the American public,” Bessent said. “Having the public’s trust is the only thing that gives it credibility. And you, sir, are restoring trust to government.”
💡Perspectives:
• CNN: Trump vs. Pritzker feud could trigger a major national crisis.
• Wall Street Journal: Fed bashing’s populist roots.
• The Hill: John Bolton cashed in and America paid the price.
• The Hill: Democrats, rudderless, draw roadmap back to White House.
Read more:
• DNC chair withdraws Gaza resolution, calls for task force.
• Who is Lisa Cook, Federal Reserve governor targeted by Trump?
• Trump admin ‘absolutely forbidden’ from removing Abrego Garcia.
• Trump mulls renaming Department of Defense to Department of War.
• Vaccine skeptic to lead CDC COVID immunization working group.
