Trump keeps turning Republican wins into loyalty tests — and political liabilities

President Donald Trump is turning a series of would-be Republican wins into political headaches for his own party, complicating GOP efforts to show voters they can govern as they head into the July 4 congressional recess, critics say. In the last two weeks, Trump delayed his own director of national intelligence pick, effectively derailing talks over a key foreign surveillance program that lapsed, then on Wednesday scrapped at the last minute a planned signing of a bipartisan housing bill aimed at affordability. He's repeatedly pressed Senate Republicans to gut the filibuster to clear a path for a voter-ID and noncitizen voting bill that lacks the votes to pass. And even an Iran peace deal has become harder for some Republicans to defend amid complaints that Congress was left in the dark and an $87.6 billion White House request to pay for the war. And often in his recent public remarks, Trump returns to the failed reflecting pool renovation. The fallout has spread across Capitol Hill. The Senate, in response to the dysfunction, started its July 4 recess early and left town Wednesday night. The House, meanwhile, is paralyzed as hardliners have taken up Trump's mantle and refused to vote for GOP priorities until the election bill, the SAVE America Act, is passed. House members also headed back to their districts early, though they're due back next week. What could have been a Republican victory lap on Wednesday — a bipartisan housing bill that reins in private equity and could boost housing supply and affordability — instead became chaos. The episodes are not identical. But they point to a pattern: Republicans get close to a win. Trump turns it into a loyalty test. The win becomes another fight. Some Republicans are now saying so publicly. "He's been destructive," Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said of Trump's handling of the housing bill. "He had a good bill that he could have signed and couldn't take a win." Bacon said Trump appeared to be acting "spur of the moment" and by the "seat of the pants," complicating a bill that "was a win for Congress and for him." "It was a mistake," Bacon told CNBC on Thursday. In response to a request for comment Thursday, the White House referred to comments the president made from the Oval Office Wednesday night. After a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte, Trump defended his decision to halt the housing bill and lashed out at Democrats for opposing the SAVE America Act. He said "we're doing great" on affordability and that his administration is "reducing prices a lot." Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., who also supported the housing bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, said the frustration among Republicans was real. "You had 85% of voting House members support it. You had 90% of voting Senate members support it," Fitzpatrick told CNBC. "You can't get that on the naming of a post office, let alone a comprehensive housing affordability package." Fitzpatrick said the episode "is another example of the president using New York real estate tactics as leverage to try to extract other concessions." "Of course, it's frustrating," Fitzpatrick said. Fissures in Congress Not all congressional Republicans are upset at the president's recent actions. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in particular, has been supportive of the president and met with Trump at the White House Thursday afternoon. And conservative members of the House have echoed Trump, saying they will withhold their support from any legislation until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act, the conservative election bill that advanced out of the lower chamber in February. "The president did the right thing yesterday by canceling the bill signing, unless the SAVE Act is attached," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said at a Freedom Caucus press conference Thursday morning, referring to the housing bill. "I personally think we should not have any more legislation until the Senate comes back in session. And they're out for two weeks, ironically." Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who is leading the GOP blockade of the House floor as a SAVE America Act proponent, similarly suggested that the bill be attached to larger, must-pass legislation, like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or the National Defense Authorization Act. But doing so could imperil both pieces of legislation. A key section of FISA, the spy bill that allows the U.S. to surveil people outside the U.S., including when they are communicating with Americans, expired earlier this month amid Democratic opposition to Trump's temporary pick for director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte. Pulte leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency and is a loyal ally of Trump's. His willingness to use his perch atop the FHFA to investigate Trump opponents raised concerns among Democrats and some congressional Republicans. Trump, in response to those concerns, tapped U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton as the permanent DNI, and lawmakers tried to fast track the nomination process. But hours before Clayton was due to testify before Congress last week, Trump posted on Truth Social that Clayton should stay home, in yet another attempt to force through the SAVE America Act. Democrats, meanwhile, have seized on Trump's handling of the housing bill as proof that the president doesn't care about affordability, the foremost issue heading into the 2026 midterm elections in which Republicans are attempting to hold narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. "Voters have seen this over and over and over again, that he doesn't care," Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told CNBC. "And that's why they are demanding better representation, and a huge reason why we're going to take back the House." Brittany Martinez, a former aide to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and executive director at Principles First, which positions itself as an alternative to the Conservative Political Action Conference, said Trump's recent actions lacked "strategic discipline." "Republicans had an opening to talk about affordability and housing — issues voters actually care about — and instead the story became Trump cancelling a housing vote, muddying the waters around his own intelligence pick, and injecting more instability into FISA negotiations," Martinez told CNBC. "If Republicans continue to dismiss or downplay the affordability crisis instead of addressing it, voters are going to notice," she said. Matt Dallek, a George Washington University professor who studies the modern conservative movement, said that "without Democrats controlling either branch of Congress, Trump doesn't have a strong enemy, so he seems to be picking fights within his party." "When it comes to midterm messaging, Republican in-fighting could make the party lose focus and sight of the real prize that is control of Congress," Dallek said. Vanity projects The problems aren't limited to Capitol Hill. Trump has spent much of his political capital remaking Washington's most visible civic spaces around his own image. Trump has been focused in recent weeks on the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, following controversy over adding his name to the Kennedy Center and construction of a White House ballroom that Trump ordered before running into legal trouble. Trump personally pushed to renovate the reflecting pool ahead of America's 250th birthday, including directing that its bottom be painted what he called "American flag blue." The project was intended to be a patriotic showcase and a visible symbol of national renewal. Instead, it became another political headache. After the renovation came in more than $4 million over budget, according to federal contracts, the pool was hit by algae blooms, and the new coating appeared to peel. Trump blamed unspecified vandals, claimed people had damaged the liner, said arrests had been made and ordered the pool fenced off. "It's such a waste of taxpayer money… how much more money is it going to cost to fix an issue that didn't exist in the first place," Martinez said on MS NOW Tuesday. "He can't fix the algae, so he's threatening handcuffs." Democrats have also seized on the episode to question the administration's competence and demand answers about the contracts, costs and execution of the project.