Republican Sen. Mike Lee provided some colorful commentary Wednesday night time about Democrats and the federal government shutdown.
“It’s going to hurt them,” the Utah senator mentioned. “As a result of Russ Vought, the OMB director, has been dreaming about this second, making ready this second, since puberty.”
He added: “That is going to be the Democrats’ worst nightmare.”
Lee was alluding to the Trump administration’s threats and actions to make use of the shutdown to focus on federal staff and issues they are saying are favored by Democrats. Neither Vought nor President Donald Trump has been in any respect delicate about their intent to do that. Trump has mentioned he’s tasked Vought with figuring out which “Democrat Agencies” to cut. And Vought has already introduced a collection of funding halts that focused 16 states, all of them blue.
However by Thursday, Home Speaker Mike Johnson provided a view of Vought’s motivations that was nearly diametrically against Lee’s.
“Russ does this reluctantly,” the Louisiana Republican mentioned.
“He takes no pleasure on this,” he added.
And simply in case Johnson hadn’t been clear the primary two occasions: “That isn’t a enjoyable activity, and he’s not having fun with that accountability.”
The speaker’s assertion highlights what appears to be unease amongst some Republicans concerning the Trump administration’s moderately blatant efforts to politically weaponize a shutdown.
Fears that Trump would use a shutdown to chop issues that “don’t align with the president’s values,” as press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed Thursday, had been a big reason Democrats caved over the past shutdown debate earlier this yr.
However this time Democrats determined to attempt to name the administration’s bluff. And there are indicators some Republicans are getting chilly ft concerning the administration making good on its threats.
Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota has been particularly blunt.
In feedback Wednesday, he cautioned that this effort may cost Republicans the “moral high ground” in a shutdown debate they need to in any other case win.
“There’s the political ramifications that would trigger backlash,” Cramer advised CNN’s Manu Raju, including: “I simply don’t like squandering that political capital.”
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine referred to as the administration’s focusing on of $18 billion in infrastructure tasks in New York – residence to the highest Democrats in each the Home and the Senate – “totally unacceptable.”
Rep. Mike Lawler of New York publicly criticized the identical transfer.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina advised Reuters that the administration must be “really careful with that, as a result of they will create a poisonous setting right here.”
And even Senate Majority Chief John Thune has appeared to throw up a warning flag.
Requested Thursday by Politico whether or not Vought’s efforts had been muddying the political waters, the South Dakota Republican responded: “The only thing I would say about that is yes, and we don’t management what he’s going to do.”
There are a pair methods to learn this.
One is that it’s a little bit of an excellent cop-bad cop routine. The lawmakers who have to determine a manner out of this shutdown can hold amicable relations with their Democratic counterparts by gently suggesting this isn’t their most popular strategy, even whereas these really in command of the cuts convey down the hammer.
However the different is that Republicans genuinely concern what this might portend – and are subtly urging the administration to again off.
And to the extent it’s the latter, they may have good motive to concern a redux of Division of Authorities Effectivity cuts.
DOGE wound up being broadly unpopular among the many public, in any case, and its architect Elon Musk much more so.
A March CNN poll confirmed Individuals mentioned 62%-37% that they feared the DOGE cuts would “go too far and vital federal authorities applications will probably be shut down.”
Different polls have proven around 6 in 10 Americans disapproved of DOGE.
The latest polling – from Quinnipiac University in June – confirmed these destructive views have lingered in about the identical place. About twice as many Individuals referred to as Musk’s and DOGE’s efficiency “poor” (45%) as mentioned it was “wonderful” (20%).
And past that, there are the electoral dynamics.
Whereas the 16 states Vought focused Wednesday had been all blue, these states are additionally disproportionately residence to what are anticipated to be aggressive Home races within the 2026 midterms.
In reality, of the 39 Home districts rated as “toss-up” or leaning barely towards one of many events by the Cook dinner Political Report, greater than 40% had been in these 16 states.
The DOGE cuts had been additionally a big subplot in maybe the most important election of 2025 up to now: the Wisconsin Supreme Courtroom race. After Musk inserted himself into that contest in a significant manner, the Democratic-aligned candidate gained by 10 factors.
Trump has additionally taken remarkably little care to promote cuts associated to the shutdown in a palatable manner. Maybe the very best proof of that was his missive Thursday morning on Reality Social during which he described Vought as being “of PROJECT 2025 Fame.”
Extra like infamy. Undertaking 2025 was an albatross in 2024. One poll late within the marketing campaign confirmed 57% of registered voters had a destructive view of the Heritage Basis playbook, in comparison with simply 4% who had a constructive one. Trump mainly sought to fully disown it, at the least publicly in the course of the marketing campaign.
The president has since hired many prominent figures involved in Project 2025. And regardless of his supposed distancing from it, the challenge’s imprint is throughout his administration.
However whereas that’s helped Trump broaden his energy, its move-fast-and-break-stuff type hasn’t finished the GOP a whole lot of political favors.
Democrats appear to have come round to the thought of letting Trump’s threats play out and difficult the administration to do its worst. Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday even responded to Vought’s halting of New York’s infrastructure funding by deriding his “baseless threats.”
It’s a sport of rooster inside the broader sport of rooster that’s the authorities shutdown. Now we wait to see who was proper.
