Republican politics today are a little like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
President Donald Trump is finally putting his weight behind legislation aimed at bringing down the sky-high cost of living, calling for a gas tax holiday and urging the House to pass the Senate’s long-stalled affordable housing bill.
Yet Trump’s policies are — in part — why prices are so high, including the war with Iran and wave after wave of tariffs. That’s the Hyde part.
The president’s new efforts could be too little, too late for the GOP, especially as the White House is creating self-inflicted wounds for vulnerable Republicans. This includes the controversial push for $1 billion in security funding for Trump’s East Wing ballroom project.
“If I’m in the Democratic marketing department, I’m probably thinking of a lot of ways I would use this to target senators that vote for it,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who’s not running for reelection. “Even if you can get past the policy and justify it, the timing and optics are really bad.”
Political problems. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was defensive Monday at the suggestion that the GOP hasn’t done enough to address affordability. Thune insisted the tax benefits of the One Big Beautiful Bill haven’t yet been fully realized. Speaker Mike Johnson sings this tune, too.
But since the big OBBB show on July 4th last year, Republicans have spent months fighting over affordability measures with little to show for it. Senate-House GOP tensions over the most recent DHS shutdown further exacerbated them.
Some Republicans are fed up with the inaction. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Trump has had a bunch of ideas to address affordability but bemoaned the fact that the Republican-run Congress has “done approximately nothing” in response.
“I think we’ve done one thing — housing. Kind of,” said Hawley, who released a gas tax holiday bill. “So I think we need to do more.”
The Senate is now in play for Democrats in November, and the most vulnerable Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Jon Husted (Ohio) — are being forced to answer questions over Trump’s ballroom. Democrats are salivating at the chance to put them on the record.
“I think the narrative around that needs to shift,” Thune said bluntly of the East Wing security funding. “For sure, the Dems will try to make a political issue out of it. But substantively, there’s a really compelling argument.”
This group of at-risk Republicans in both chambers has taken a beating over the past year.
1) Vulnerable House Republicans begged their colleagues to extend the enhanced premium tax credits for Obamacare that expired at the end of 2025. The effort died in the Senate.
2) The GOP has been totally stuck on affordable housing legislation, and it’s far from certain that Trump’s call for House passage of the Senate bill will actually have any impact. The House’s opposition to the Senate’s package is intense.
3) Gas prices have soared since the start of Trump’s war with Iran. The national average is $4.50 per gallon. The push for a gas tax holiday shows that Republicans know they have a serious political problem on their hands.
Trump said Monday that the ceasefire with Iran is on “massive life support.” Renewed fighting could push gas prices even higher — and force some Republicans to join Democrats in backing war powers resolutions as soon as this week.
A gas tax holiday could provide some political relief for Republicans, but it won’t fix the underlying problem. Democrats would have to be willing to go along with it as well. Thune sounded skeptical Monday but said Republicans would “hear [Trump] out” on it.
The ballroom factor. Against this backdrop of soaring costs comes the White House’s push for $1 billion in security funding in the Republican-only reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol. Secret Service Director Sean Curran is scheduled to pitch Senate Republicans on the request at their lunch meeting today.
To vulnerable House and Senate Republicans, the funding is a political disaster. To them, this is all part of Trump spending too much time on vanity projects and foreign wars and not enough on economic issues.
Trump is trying to shell out cash to repaint the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and resurface the Reflecting Pool by the Lincoln Memorial. Trump plans to host thousands of spectators on the White House lawn for a UFC fight. There will be an IndyCar race down Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump is talking about building a giant arch near Arlington National Cemetery and turning D.C.’s humble public golf courses into championship resorts. None of this helps with soaring electricity bills or gas prices.
It’s possible that, for once, vulnerable Republicans say enough is enough and reject the ballroom security funding during the Senate’s vote-a-rama. It could also fall out in the Byrd Bath, saving Republicans from a messy fight.
Beyond that, vulnerable Republicans are sick of voting for reconciliation bills that Democrats can easily use against them.
Specifically earmarking the $1 billion for East Wing security was, to many Republicans, a political own-goal. Republicans could have simply written the provision to provide $1 billion for the Secret Service without further explanation. Securing the ballroom “has to be done anyway,” Thune acknowledged.
Collins, the appropriations chair, was noncommittal Monday, noting Trump has said private donors will fund the ballroom.
“I’m for the private funding sources,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) added.
