Trump wades into stark GOP divisions: 5 takeaways as 2026 gets rolling

WASHINGTON – In the first year of President Donald Trump's second term in office, he got pretty much everything he wanted out of the Republican-led Congress.

He passed a giant tax and spending law with sweeping reforms to domestic policy. Most of his Cabinet was confirmed, despite some of the controversial people he nominated. He convinced lawmakers to erode significant legislative checks on his power. And he massively culled the federal government, with little pushback from those within his party.

But the political winds have shifted at the start of his second year, which coincides with midterm elections that recent history suggests won't go his way. And that ever-reliable Republican allegiance is looking much less ironclad.

That said, Republican lawmakers, especially in the Senate, have already made certain red lines clear. They pushed back hard last fall against Trump's push to end the 60-vote threshold in that chamber more commonly known as the filibuster. Before that, they refused to let the president force them to scrap a century-old norm called "blue slips," which allow senators to object to certain presidential nominees in their home states.

Then came the Jeffrey Epstein firestorm. For arguably the first time since Trump settled back into the White House, congressional Republicans became the ones forcing him into an uncomfortable political position – supporting the release of Justice Department files related to the notorious sex trafficker – rather than the other way around.

Amid the controversy, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, formerly an ardent Trump defender, suffered a major falling out with her party's standard bearer. She announced she'd be resigning from Congress, just as other Republicans also headed for the exits. When lawmakers returned for the new year, a tragic death further slimmed down the GOP majority in the House, at least temporarily.

All those factors have created a dynamic in Congress in which the potency of Republican dissent is intensifying, especially amid the approaching midterm elections, which historically spell trouble for the party in power.

Here are five takeaways from the first week of the new year as America's elected lawmakers returned to their jobs in Washington.

A shrinking majority

The GOP majority in the House got even smaller as lawmakers came back from their holiday breaks. Greene's resignation took effect, leaving her seat open until a special election later this year. In addition, California Rep. Doug LaMalfa died suddenly at 65 on Jan. 5 after a medical emergency.

The shifts left the ratio of House Republicans to Democrats at 218-213, with 216 needed to maintain a majority amid ongoing vacancies. That two-vote margin includes Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who frequently votes against Trump policies.

Venezuela vote and a potential red line on Greenland

Foreign policy is also fracturing the GOP.

Five Senate Republicans joined with Democrats on Jan. 8 to prevent the Trump administration from taking further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval. Trump immediately condemned them on social media, saying they should "never be elected to office again."

While most Republicans are publicly standing behind the White House's actions so far in Venezuela, Greenland is a different story. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said on Jan. 7 there was "zero support" among GOP senators for the prospect of American military action to take over the territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. Though Trump administration officials haven't said that's likely, and have indicated the U.S. would like to purchase the island, they haven't explicitly ruled out an incursion when asked on multiple occasions since the Venezuela operation.

“I would like to make a deal the easy way,” Trump said on Jan. 9. "But if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”

Health care headaches

After years of Republican unity against Obamacare, the landmark health care law enacted in 2010 has recently become a source of friction between moderate conservatives and hardliners in Congress.

On Jan. 8, 17 Republicans defected from the wishes of GOP leaders to pass a Democratic bill that would restore and extend health care subsidies for Obamacare enrollees that expired at the end of last year, raising premiums for millions of Americans. While the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate, the bill's success in the House underlines the tough political situation Republican lawmakers are in as their constituents face increased health-related costs.

Epstein fallout continues

Frustrations aren't showing signs of subsiding anytime soon over the Justice Department's compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Lawmakers in both parties have accused the agency of continuing to withhold documents that are statutorily required to be made publicly available (the DOJ says it's following the law completely within time and resource constraints).

Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick told USA TODAY in December that if the Trump administration didn't release all the Epstein files by their original Dec. 19 deadline, Congress would need to intervene again.

"Then we're going to have to revisit it, and we're going to have to pass more bills on the floor," he said.

Democrats wary of another shutdown

Though lawmakers are wading through a maze of policy challenges this month, they're crossing at least one crisis off their calendars: The prospect of another government shutdown is looking less and less likely ahead of a Jan. 30 funding deadline.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, has said Republican appropriators are working with Democrats and they're "making good progress." The last government shutdown took a record-setting 43 days before it could be resolved in November.

Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.