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Signs of Republican Dissent Over Trump’s War Powers

From the series Chronicles of the new American nationalism

Donald Trump has plunged Atlantic relations into crisis and launched military operations in Africa, Venezuela, and the Middle East, culminating in the war against Iran. In Congress, a dozen Republicans have criticised these actions. The GOP rebellion is limited in scope and has various internal factions; but it is significant that the party leaders, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have distanced themselves from some of Donald Trump’s positions.

The Atlanticist faction

Johnson and Thune have dismissed Trump’s threats against Greenland – a territory included in NATO via Denmark and the EU – as unrealistic. For Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, they are weapons-grade stupid, while Mitch McConnell, Thune’s predecessor, has described them as an act of catastrophic strategic self-harm. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, together with Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, introduced the NATO Unity Protection Act which, invoking Congress’s spending power, prohibits taxpayer money from being used to [...] assert control over the sovereign territory of any NATO ally.

Murkowski and Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon, together with Democrats Ruben Gallego and Ro Khanna, have also introduced the Sense of Congress resolution, which reaffirms the partnership with Denmark and Greenland. Finally, Thom Tillis of North Carolina – alongside a delegation of Democrats led by Chris Coons – and Murkowski, together with Democrats Angus King and Gallego, also met with Danish and Greenlandic political and business leaders.

Underlying concerns over Iran

Senators Murkowski, Susan Collins of Maine, and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted in January, alongside Democrats, for a resolution on war powers to limit Trump’s authority over military operations in Venezuela. Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to cast the deciding vote to reject the bill.

Todd Young of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri withdrew their initial support for the resolution after announcing on social media that they had received adequate reassurances from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Thomas Massie in the House and Rand Paul in the Senate, together with Democrat Tim Kaine, sought instead to restrict the president’s military actions against Iran. Other Republicans expressed reservations about the war, though they failed to provide the necessary votes for the two proposals. Nevertheless, there are signs of a rift over the administration’s conduct.

According to the Financial Times, GOP circles consider the decision-making process to be confused and the war’s objectives unclear. The Gang of Eight is a bipartisan group of eight members of Congress who are briefed by the executive on security matters: it includes the majority and minority leaders of the House, the Senate, and their respective intelligence committees. Senator Mark Warner told the Financial Times that, during the briefings, the administration gave no indication as to whether or not it had planned for the consequences of its military campaign. Feeling its way in the dark, a faction of the Republican Party is attempting to distance itself from the administration’s foreign policy.

Lisa Murkowski [1957], senator for Alaska. A lawyer from Anchorage and a member of the State House of Representatives [1998-2002], she was first elected to the US Senate in 2004, having joined it in 2002 after her father, Frank Murkowski, resigned to take up the post of governor. A proponent of prioritising fiscal policies, in 2010 she lost the primary to a Tea Party candidate, but won the general election. A Republican and a Catholic, she is criticised by conservatives for her stance on abortion. A centrist, she has often worked with Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Susan Collins of Maine. Favoured by Mitch McConnell for her bipartisan approach, she sits on the Energy, Indian Affairs, Defense, Military Construction, and Veterans’ Affairs committees and subcommittees, which place her at the heart of the State’s most important issues. Pragmatic towards China, with which Alaska is a major trading partner, she takes a firm stance towards Russia, whose coastline is visible across the Bering Strait.

Susan Collins [1952], senator for Maine. In post since 1996 in a State never dominated by a single party in elections, she has cited her Republican predecessors Margaret Chase Smith and her mentor for over a decade, William Cohen, as her role models – a reference to the senator who opposed Joseph McCarthy’s demagoguery, and the senator who voted for the impeachment of Richard Nixon, a fact that has been held against her on several occasions. A Catholic, yet holding liberal views on individual rights, she has been criticised both before and after the overturning of Roe v. Wade – the Supreme Court ruling on abortion – for casting a vote considered crucial to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She has in turn been commended for her bipartisan approach by Mitch McConnell, and sits on the Aging, Health, Agriculture, Defense, Intelligence, and Veterans’ Affairs committees. She has been a supporter of Ukraine in the war against Russia, and of the industrial and defence policies of Biden and Trump, particularly regarding shipbuilding, in response to China’s growing strength.

Thom Tillis [1960], senator for North Carolina. Born in Florida into a large family, he graduated at the age of 36 from an online university, having worked his way up from warehouse accountant to manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM. He moved to Charlotte, a financial hub linked to North Carolina’s major food-industry supply chain and the technology sector centred on Research Triangle Park, as a consultant for NationsBank. Tillis’s political rise was rapid, taking place in a State marked by local and national contention between the GOP and Democrats of all stripes. Elected the fifth GOP speaker in the history of the State House, he pushed through a law requiring ID cards at polling stations, despite the extremely high abstention rate among immigrants on whom agriculture, poultry farming, and related processing industries in North Carolina depend. A fiscal conservative and a Catholic, he pursued and secured a tax cut plan, an abortion law (later overturned by a federal judge), and approval for carrying firearms on campuses and in courthouses. Despite facing competition from the right and the Tea Party, he became a senator in 2014, with the support of big business, mobilised through Americans for Prosperity, American Crossroads, and the Chamber of Commerce. Thanks to his bipartisan approach, he joined the powerful Banking Committee in 2023. He supported sending weapons to Ukraine to counter Russia. A critic of rapid decoupling, he advocates industrial policy and defence measures to counter China. At odds with the presidency, he has announced that he will not stand for re-election.

Josh Hawley [1979], senator for Missouri. Born in Arkansas, the son of a teacher and a banker who supported the Bush family, he moved to the vicinity of Kansas City, where his family, though Presbyterian, enrolled him in Catholic boys’ schools. He graduated with a degree in History from Stanford, where he moved in conservative and evangelical circles. As an intern at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, he became associated with George Will, a long-standing conservative columnist at The Washington Post. After a brief teaching stint in London, he graduated from Yale Law School, where he chaired the Federalist Society; subsequently, he served as a clerk to Judge Michael W. McConnell [2006-07], and at the Supreme Court under John G. Roberts. A lawyer at the law firm Hogan Lovells for several years, he subsequently served as counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty [2011-15], and as a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law. A son of the establishment, he was elected senator in 2018 as a fierce critic of it, and led the opposition to the certification of Joe Biden’s victory during the storming of the Capitol. He sits on the Judiciary Committee. A proponent of prioritising the Asian theatre and the theories of Elbridge Colby, he voted against sending arms to Kyiv, and against Sweden and Finland joining NATO. A critic of the free market, of big business – particularly Google and Facebook – and of social inequality, he is a supporter of the role of trade unions.

Todd Young [1972], senator for Indiana. Born in Pennsylvania, after attending the Naval Academy he joined the Marines, serving in the Caribbean and in recruitment in Chicago. He moved to Washington to work at the Heritage Foundation and became an aide to Senator Richard Lugar [2001-03]; he then served as an adviser to Governor Mitch Daniels, and in 2005 married the niece of the influential Republican Dan Quayle. Deputy prosecutor in Orange County from 2007, he was elected to the House in the 2010 GOP wave, following Indiana’s vote for Barack Obama. Young combined tough rhetoric against Democratic leaders Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi with the bipartisan approach typical of his mentor Lugar, and joined the powerful Ways and Means Committee in 2013. Elected in a State which is a major agricultural and industrial producer, as well as an important transport hub, he called for and celebrated the end of tariffs during Trump’s first term. As a congressman and senator, he promoted, alongside Rand Paul, the Reins Act, which would give Congress broad oversight of federal regulation. Elected to the Senate in 2016, he, like Lugar, crossed party lines on foreign policy. During Trump’s first term, he was one of seven Republicans who voted with the Democrats to withdraw support for Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen; furthermore, as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, he co-authored a bill with Democrat Robert Menendez to suspend arms shipments to Riyadh. During the Biden presidency, however, he supported sending arms to Ukraine and, together with Democrat Tim Kaine, introduced a bill – passed by the Senate – to withdraw authorisation for the use of military force in Iraq. A member of the moderate Main Street Caucus, he chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) during the 2020 election cycle. He took polarising stances; but that year an NRSC memorandum circulated advising against defending Trump, with the exception of his offensive against China. During the Biden presidency, he supported the CHIPS Act and highlighted Chinese competition in the field of biotechnology. A critic of open borders, he has drafted legislation to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving welfare benefits. Without attacking Trump’s tariffs – who won Indiana by a large margin in 2024 – he called on Congress to resume its responsibilities in trade policy.

Thomas Massie [1971], representative for Kentucky. Born in West Virginia, a graduate of MIT, a successful tech entrepreneur and later a congressman, he now also runs a farm powered by renewable energy and Tesla batteries. A Methodist and libertarian, and supporter of Rand Paul, he was himself elected in 2012 on the back of the Tea Party wave. He helped organise the House Freedom Caucus, which he felt to revive the Second Amendment Caucus; but his proposals to liberalise the sale and carrying of firearms have never been debated in the House. The price he paid for his defiance in the Republican speaker elections of 2015 and 2019 was losing the chairmanship of the Technology subcommittee and being sidelined in other committees; however, in 2023 he secured the chairmanship of the Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, and joined the influential Rules Committee.

Don Bacon [1963], representative for Nebraska. Born in Illinois, a career officer in the US Air Force, with a master’s degree from the National War College, he served as an assistant to General David Petraeus at the Pentagon. He left the service, worked as a staff member for Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, and was elected to the House in 2017 from a swing constituency (2nd district), centred on Omaha – home to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and other large business groups such as Union Pacific, Kiewit Corporation, Mutual of Omaha, Green Plains Renewable Energy, TD Ameritrade, and Valmont Industries. Bacon is a supporter of bipartisanship and alliances in Europe; he accused Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, of favouring Russia in negotiations with Ukraine, and announced his retirement at the end of his term, following a row with Trump, subsequently voting for the latter’s impeachment over the storming of Capitol Hill.

Translated from the original work by , published in Lotta Comunista, , p. 14.

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