{"id":10084,"date":"2026-02-12T14:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/12\/trump-plays-the-heavy-for-no-reason-punchbowl-news\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T14:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:15:16","slug":"trump-plays-the-heavy-for-no-reason-punchbowl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/12\/trump-plays-the-heavy-for-no-reason-punchbowl-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump plays the heavy for no reason – Punchbowl News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When the only tool\u00a0<\/strong>you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.<\/p>\n

Such is life\u00a0<\/strong>with President\u00a0Donald Trump,<\/strong>\u00a0who\u2019s warning<\/a>\u00a0that Republicans will be made to suffer \u2014 either in primaries or on Election Day \u2014 for voting against his unprecedented tariff regime.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s say this:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Trump is wasting his energy. He can veto any tariff termination resolution and the vast majority of Republicans would absolutely uphold his veto. These resolutions are nothing more than a bad headline for the president. But Trump doesn\u2019t like the optics of any Republicans voting against him. Ever.<\/p>\n

Not that Trump cares,\u00a0<\/strong>but this broadside is particularly poor congressional politics. If Trump just left the issue alone, voting against the tariffs would be a way for vulnerable GOP lawmakers to let off some steam and perhaps help their electoral prospects back home.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0<\/strong>Trump doesn\u2019t appear terribly\u00a0<\/strong>interested in what might be helpful to rank-and-file Republicans. Trump suggested on Tuesday that Congress was done legislating for the entirety of his term. How\u2019s that for motivation? Speaker\u00a0Mike Johnson\u00a0<\/strong>told us that what Trump actually meant was that \u201cWe had a very productive, very successful first year of the second term.\u201d Got it.<\/p>\n

Johnson was with Trump<\/strong>\u00a0on Wednesday, but the speaker wasn\u2019t aware that the president was going to unleash a political barrage against rank-and-file GOP members in the midst of the floor vote on the tariff resolution. Trump\u2019s declaration didn\u2019t change\u00a0the outcome,<\/a>\u00a0which was a clear victory for Rep.\u00a0Greg Meeks<\/strong>\u00a0(D-N.Y.) and House Democratic leaders.<\/p>\n

A surprised Johson<\/strong>\u00a0said the president \u201cunderstands that he can veto anything that passes even through the Senate, and so it doesn\u2019t change his policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>threat didn\u2019t impact how six Republicans voted. A half-dozen GOP lawmakers voted to cancel Trump\u2019s emergency declaration allowing him to levy tariffs on Canada: Reps.\u00a0Thomas Massie\u00a0<\/strong>(Ky.),\u00a0Don Bacon\u00a0<\/strong>(Neb.),\u00a0Brian Fitzpatrick\u00a0<\/strong>(Pa.),\u00a0Jeff Hurd\u00a0<\/strong>(Colo.),\u00a0Kevin Kiley<\/strong>\u00a0(Calif.) and\u00a0Dan Newhouse\u00a0<\/strong>(Wash.).<\/p>\n

Trump is already\u00a0<\/strong>backing an expensive primary to Massie, an eight-term lawmaker, so the Kentucky Republican votes how he wants. Newhouse and Bacon are retiring. Kiley has been redistricted out of his central California seat.<\/p>\n

That leaves Fitzpatrick,\u00a0<\/strong>just about the only Republican who can win his suburban Philadelphia seat, and Hurd, who represents a seat that Trump won by fewer than 10 points in 2024.<\/p>\n

Democrats will offer<\/strong>\u00a0a flood of tariff resolutions in the coming weeks and months. Maybe Trump\u2019s threat will have an impact.<\/p>\n

But if Trump\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0approval ratings<\/a>\u00a0stay where they are, Republicans may continue to buck him, betting that opposing an unpopular president is smart for the midterms.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the only tool\u00a0you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Such is life\u00a0with President\u00a0Donald Trump,\u00a0who\u2019s warning\u00a0that Republicans will be made to suffer \u2014 either in primaries or on Election Day \u2014 for voting against his unprecedented tariff regime. First, let\u2019s say this:\u00a0Trump is wasting his energy. He can veto any tariff termination […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}