As this week got underway, the political world was jolted by unexpected news: The Justice Department, the public learned on Sunday night, has opened a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair. There was no great mystery as to why: Powell resisted Donald Trump’s demands on interest rates, and so it appeared the administration was exacting its revenge.
The pushback was immediate and widespread. Powell released a rare video statement, condemning the baseless probe, and he was quickly joined by every living former Fed chair, who signed on to a statement calling the DOJ subpoenas “an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine that independence” of the Fed.
Former Treasury secretaries, prominent economists and former chairs of the White House Council of Economic Advisers joined the pile-on, as did some conservative media voices, with the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal describing the developments as “a self-defeating fiasco.”
On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, congressional Democrats wasted no time in condemning the developments, but as MS NOW reported, the reaction was not entirely a partisan affair:
For Republican lawmakers who usually move in lockstep with President Donald Trump, the Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is quickly becoming an unexpected loyalty test, with many of them expressing discomfort with the move and some vowing to make it difficult to replace Powell.
Plenty of the usual GOP suspects toed the party line or avoided questions in the hopes of steering clear of White House apoplexy, but several Republicans in both chambers made clear — with public, on-the-record responses — that they believed the administration was crossing a red line with this latest prosecutorial abuse.
Time will tell whether Team Trump cares about the scope and breadth of the pushback, and it remains entirely possible that the ridiculous case against Powell will proceed anyway.
But stepping back, the fact that so many congressional Republicans were willing to voice their opposition and criticisms was emblematic of a larger pattern and problem for the incumbent president.
The conventional wisdom in many political circles is that Trump’s control over congressional Republicans is complete and unrelenting. The president barks orders and GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill obey, motivated by some combination of fear, partisan allegiance, loyalty and ideological agreement.
But with Trump’s approval rating sinking to unusually low levels, and Republican members expressing understandable concern about their own electoral futures, the president’s grip on Congress is slipping.
This was clear last week, when 17 House Republicans ignored the administration’s position and sided with the Democratic minority on a Democratic discharge petition to revive and extend Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies, and it was equally obvious the same day when several Senate Republicans broke ranks and backed a war powers resolution aimed at reining in U.S. military actions in Venezuela.
This dovetailed with related GOP criticisms of the administration’s crusade to seize control of Greenland.
What’s more, all of this comes on the heels of related developments from late last year, when Republicans rejected some of Trump’s ridiculous nominees and voted to rebuke his trade agenda.
A New York Times analysis noted: “Together, the events illustrated that the president, who for a year has been able to count on a largely compliant Republican-led Congress with no appetite to challenge him, is facing new defiance as lawmakers concerned about their political futures look to assert themselves ahead of midterm voting.”
An adept president with extensive leadership experience might be able to navigate these waters and take steps to keep his GOP allies aligned with the White House. Trump, however, appears to have no idea how to do this — he is, after all, the least experienced president in American history — which suggests his troubles will only get worse as the midterm elections draw closer.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
