Trump takes a beating from GOP amid Epstein files and tariffs rebuke

President Donald Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party might be starting to loosen, just a bit.

The few elected Republicans who regularly cross him — including Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina — are more vocal than ever. And in recent days, daylight has emerged between the president and a handful of his top supporters in Congress.

The apparent shift is underway as Trump, the Republican Party’s undisputed leader, grapples with stubbornly low approval ratings — especially on the economy, a perennial issue on which he was elected that has only grown more important to Americans chafing under high prices.

Six U.S. House Republicans voted this week to overturn Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Tillis remained resolute in holding up the president’s Fed chair nomination in protest over a Justice Department investigation of the current one. The administration pulled back the sustained anti-immigration law enforcement push in Minnesota. And fallout from the Epstein files — in which Trump and allies are mentioned — is roiling the world and its most powerful players.

Democrats are jumping on the opening, with some pushing a narrative that “the tide is turning” on Trump. Their perceived momentum follows big wins in last fall’s off-year elections after hammering an affordability message, and as prediction markets favor them to win control of the House in the midterms.

“Trump’s grip on power is slipping,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said Thursday in a gloating social media post. “Nobody is taking his bulls— that somehow he’s lowering prices for families.”

The administration’s efforts this week to wrest the affordability narrative — by drawing attention to Trump’s drug-pricing initiatives, or to gains in the stock market, or to projections that Americans’ tax refunds will rise this season — have been muddied by the deluge of political setbacks and controversies. Trump on Friday gave a passing glance to curbing price increases when he spoke to troops in North Carolina hours after the release of January consumer price index figures that showed slowing inflation.

He’s had fewer public appearances since a racist social media post last Friday, a shift from his recent cadence of Oval Office appearances in front of reporters with supporters from the political ranks and business community. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a frequent press conference partner of Trump, but his visit to the White House this week yielded no public remarks.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked about challenges to Trump from the Republican Party, said the party will stay together with the president as its leader.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, Republicans will remain united together against the radical Democrats, who will destroy our country once again, if given the chance, with wide open borders, noncitizens voting in elections, and horrible economic policy,” Leavitt said via email.

The majority-GOP House of Representatives’ vote to override Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods only came about because three Republican members previously sided with Democrats to defeat a rule that would have blocked House votes on Trump’s tariffs through July. Trump’s threats of retaliation didn’t thwart the end result.

While the tariff votes are almost purely symbolic, they show GOP leadership failing to stop enough of their members from publicly defying Trump on his signature economic policy. Republicans can only afford to lose one vote in the House to prevail on party-line votes.

A day after the House tariff vote, U.S border czar Tom Homan announced the government would wrap up its immigration enforcement “surge” in Minnesota, following public outcry against federal agents’ aggressive tactics exacerbated by the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

A new AP-NORC poll found most Americans think the administration’s deployment of deportation forces has gone too far, and that the GOP’s advantage on immigration has shrunk since last year.

The Minnesota actions drew fiery pushback not only from protesters and Democrats but also from business owners. In an open letter shared Thursday, more than 266 businesses from across the U.S. that said they represent 100,000 others warned the government’s actions threaten free markets.

A series other Trump-related stumbles have drawn national focus away from the administration’s attempt to tout its accomplishments.

Last week, the president’s social media account posted a racist image depicting the Obamas as apes. Numerous Republicans spoke out forcefully and quickly against the post, including close Trump ally Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Senate Republican, who called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

The White House initially defended the post, but after the flood of bipartisan outrage, pivoted to blaming it on an unnamed staffer. Trump subsequently condemned the image but refused to apologize.

This week, a federal grand jury rejected U.S. prosecutors’ attempt to indict six Democratic lawmakers, weeks after Trump accused them of sedition for telling military members not to follow unlawful orders. It is highly unusual for grand juries to decline to indict.

The Department of Justice is also in the midst of a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whose refusal to quickly slash interest rates has made him a top target of Trump’s ire.

The probe, which Powell says is retaliatory, has prompted vocal pushback from Republicans worried about the erosion of the central bank’s long-established independence.

Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his current term, is blocking all Trump administration nominees to the Fed — including Kevin Warsh, his pick to replace Powell — from advancing through the Senate until the DOJ drops the investigation.

The president has said U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a Trump loyalist, should continue the probe to completion.

Scott, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, said he does not believe Powell committed a crime —while Trump has repeatedly claimed Powell is either corrupt or grossly incompetent, complaining about cost overruns on building renovations. Numerous Republicans on the Banking panel agree that Powell did not commit a crime, according to Tillis.

Trump is also grappling with the fallout from the DOJ’s release of millions of its files on notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, which is only intensifying days after the latest disclosures. Trump had opposed a bill forcing the DOJ to publicly share its files, but he reversed course as a growing number of Republicans geared up to vote for it anyway.

The newly released records have revealed ties between Epstein and administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has since admitted visiting Epstein’s island for lunch with his family in 2012.