GOP politicians are starting to do what once would have seemed unthinkable: defy President Trump

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has long held a firm grip over the Republican Party — pushing detractors out of office, installing relatives and loyalists to top party posts and executing his second-term agenda with little pushback from the GOP-controlled Congress.

But a series of public splits and spats with longtime supporters suggest that his hold is loosening slightly.

Republican leaders have started to reject Trump’s demands more openly than in the earlier months of his return to office — defying his demand not to pursue a release of the Epstein files, ignoring his push to eliminate the Senate’s filibuster rule and recently joining Democrats to co-sponsor legislation that would weaken one of his executive orders — all as polls point to increasing public dissatisfaction with his job performance.

Trump’s supporters in Congress, including Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) and Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) who recently crossed party lines to support a bill that would reverse Trump’s executive orders stripping federal workers of their collective bargaining rights, argue that it’s only natural in any major party for there to be some level of internal pushback.

But political analysts note that Trump’s command over the party has been so dominant for nearly a decade that it appears seismic when Republican lawmakers defy his wishes in any way.

"Donald Trump is the titular head of the Republican Party and has been for a while — he wields great influence ... but you're never going to get around the fact that these elected representatives still have to be answerable and responsible to their constituents," said Republican pollster and campaign strategist Michael Dawidziak, of Bayport.

Push for Epstein files

The earliest signs of pushback started to emerge this summer, when a faction of House Republicans that included some of Trump’s most ardent supporters, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), did not cave when he urged the group to abandon a bipartisan push for him to release the Epstein files.

Greene, once one of Trump’s loyalist foot soldiers in Congress, has since publicly split from the president. She recently announced she is leaving her seat, citing in part her disenchantment with Trump’s objections to releasing the files.

"This has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA — is watching the man that we supported early on, three elections," oppose the bill, Greene told reporters last month on the steps of the U.S. Capitol where she was joined by victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Last week, 20 House Republicans, including Garbarino and LaLota, joined House Democrats to pass a bill that would restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers after a pair of executive orders issued by Trump in March and August stripped those protections for much of the federal workforce.

The bill must still be approved by the Senate, where it faces a less certain future, but Garbarino in a phone interview said he did not fear that the vote would put him on the outs with Trump or the White House.

"I think people understand that you're going to have differences of opinion when it comes to governing and legislation," Garbarino said. "It's not just what the president says. He's the leader, and he does set the agenda, but Congress is also a co-equal branch of government."

LaLota, who last month provided one of the final Republican signatures needed to bring the bipartisan bill to the floor, dismissed any notion that Trump’s influence over the party was waning, describing him as the "undisputed" leader of the party.

'We should do better'

Asked if there were times he disagreed with Trump, LaLota said most recently he disapproved of Trump attacking slain Hollywood director and longtime Trump critic Rob Reiner in a social media post hours after news of his death emerged, and for recently calling Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz a derogatory term.

"We should do better than that," LaLota said in a phone interview.

Trump’s remarks on Reiner this past Monday, blaming his death on "the anger he caused others through" his opposition to Trump, sparked condemnation from several House Republicans and conservative media personalities, who urged the president to walk back his remarks.

The president has also faced pushback in the Senate, where Republicans resisted Trump’s demands during the shutdown that they vote to end the 60-vote filibuster threshold to pass legislation. Instead, Senate Republicans have largely defended preserving the decades-old rule aimed at promoting bipartisanship in the chamber, while Trump has continued to push the idea as a Jan. 30 deadline looms for passing another government spending bill.

While Trump has been successful in getting Republican-led Texas to redraw its congressional maps ahead of the midterms to bolster the party’s chances of picking up seats, state lawmakers in Indiana on Dec. 11 ignored a public pressure campaign from Trump and the White House to follow through on a similar redistricting plan, voting to reject a new map.

Several lawmakers cited the pressure tactics, including Trump’s social media posts namechecking the opposing lawmakers, as a reason they held firm on not supporting redistricting so-close to the midterms.

"This is my 14th year, and I’ve not seen this kind of tactics," State Sen. Michael Crider told NBC News.

Emboldened by polls?

New York GOP spokesman David Laska said in a statement to Newsday, Trump’s support among the party "remains strong," and "when there are good-faith disagreements, Republicans in Congress will vote their conscience."

Republican lawmakers who have largely voted in lock-step with Trump during his time in office, may be feeling more emboldened to publicly disagree with him because his low approval ratings "lessens some of his clout," said Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University.

Trump's political rise was largely fueled by his celebrity persona, but with polling showing his popularity is on the decline, Republican lawmakers, particularly those in tight races, may be less willing to tie their political fortunes to his personality and brand, Reeher said.

"A piece that is unique to Trump is that he has no coherent political ideology that maps onto what most of these Republicans grew up with, so there isn’t an overarching governing philosophy that helps to reinforce his influence," Reeher said. "It’s more personally based, and therefore when the personal popular support falters — as suggested by low approval ratings — there’s no ‘there there’ for Republicans to hang onto."

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.