President Trump’s agenda for the rest of the year is running into serious trouble with Senate Republicans, whose support is fraying after a series of confrontations over spending, personnel and foreign policy. Senate sources say the damage is already wide enough that allies of the president are warning he may have to scale back major parts of his plan if he wants anything to pass before the midterm election.
The immediate fight is over a stalled budget reconciliation package that would fund immigration enforcement operations through 2029. But the list of demands tied to it has expanded well beyond that core goal, and GOP senators say Trump has no chance of getting taxpayer money for construction of the White House ballroom. They are also warning that he will probably have to abandon or sharply rewrite his proposal for a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund if the package is going to survive.
The strain has built around a handful of senators who have become harder to count on. Senate sources say Trump has alienated Sens. Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn and Rand Paul, leaving him with less room to maneuver in a chamber where Republicans hold a 53-seat majority. Ted Cruz said the administration could face a rough road for the rest of the year after last week’s meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, when tempers erupted between GOP senators and the Justice Department chief. Cruz said, “We have a 53-47 majority, if you lose four senators, you’re below 50 and you can’t get anything done,” and added that “that is going to be a complicating factor for the rest of the year.”
He was blunter still about the months ahead. “Those four senators, I don’t envision suddenly anything becoming hunky dory and they’re being happy. Like, that dynamic for 2026, the rest of the year, we’re going to have interesting challenges,” Cruz said. A senior GOP aide put the party’s frustration even more directly: “The administration is creating issues everywhere by pissing off these senators, it’s really a bad strategy.”
The tensions are not limited to domestic spending. Over the Memorial Day weekend, even some of Trump’s closest allies pushed back on the administration over a potential peace deal with Iran. Trump said the Iran deal had been largely negotiated, but he left unclear the key details of how it would address Iran’s nuclear program or missile stockpile. Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote on X about a deal that would end the Iranian conflict if the Strait of Hormuz could not be protected from Iranian terrorism, while Sen. Roger Wicker warned on Saturday that a rumored 60-day ceasefire would be a disaster. Graham said, “If a deal is struck to end the Iranian conflict because it is believed that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism and Iran still possesses the capability to destroy major Gulf oil infrastructure, then Iran will be perceived as being a dominate force requiring a diplomatic solution,” and Wicker said, “The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster.”
That combination of rebellion and mistrust leaves Trump in a weaker position than the White House would like to admit. One anonymous Republican senator said fellow GOP senators are sick and tired of being put in tough political positions by Trump in an election year. And with moderate Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski long known for breaking with GOP leaders on major votes, Republicans cannot afford to lose much more ground. The problem for Trump is not just that one deal is stalled. It is that the coalition he needs to pass the rest of his year-end agenda is already coming apart, and Senate Republicans are now talking openly about what he may have to give up to save what is left.
