in a presidency previously marked by the republican controlled congress marching in lockstep with him, trump used the presidential veto twice this tuesday. notably, his first usage of the power this term was on two bipartisan bills, neither of which had gained much national attention. prior to this, the first real indication of republicans breaking ranks with trump came with congress voting to release the files on jeffrey. trump’s vetoes following on the heels of - and perhaps even coming as retaliation for - the release appears to set a course for growing distance between the aging president and the party he has so closely molded to himself.
one of his vetoes blocked a bill led by republican representative boebert regarding a water pipeline which would have provided clean drinking water to more rural parts of colorado. with lack of a different apparent (and believable) motive, one could be forgiven for thinking this veto was petty retaliation for boebert not falling in line on the vote to release the files and instead being one of the republican lawmakers to most vocally call for justice, even when pressured to back down by the administration.
the second veto also appears to be an instance of trump lashing out. the bill, sponsored by the republican congressman gimenez, would have granted stronger protections to the miccosukee tribe in florida for its tribal lands. the tribe seems to have caught trump’s attention for fighting against the infamous deportation facility in the everglades. while such petty and vindictive reprisals have been a consistent part of both of the president’s terms, trump feeling the need to overrule republican lawmakers to carry out his vengeance is a new development in this term.
perhaps republicans see the writing on the wall. it does not appear that trump will be capable of holding office, even as a figurehead, for many more years. as much as he has successfully bound the republican party (both the people and elected officials) to him, many of those currently in office wish for their own hold on power to outlive trump and appear to be, increasingly, seeing how the path trump is heading down diverges from one where their term in office does not end when trump is gone. if one does not wish trump’s political project success, little could be more reassuring than this new but growing gulf between leader and party.