Republicans Happily Roll Over as Trump Declares Himself King

Donald Trump called himself “THE KING” on Wednesday, and the rest of the White House was overjoyed to see the president was dropping the pretense of democracy. 

Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that his administration would challenge New York City’s recent policy installing congestion pricing, with an added rhetorical twist. 

“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” Trump wrote.

While not exactly surprising given Trump’s previous references to himself as the savior of the country, and his penchant for trolling, the president dubbing himself a “king” should theoretically rub everyone the wrong way—but not the fascists who work for him.  

Alas, the right-wing shills that run Trump’s communications basked in the wash of his declaration of unchecked power. 

Taylor Budowich, the White House deputy chief of staff posted an AI-generated picture of Trump wearing a jeweled crown and fur-trimmed cape on X. 

Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt also boosted the president’s disturbing missive on social media. 

It’s worth noting that Republicans weren’t always like this. Flashback to 2014, and Senator Rand Paul was tossing barbs at former President Barack Obama for being a “president who thinks he’s a king.”

Republicans’ sycophantic support demonstrates that Trump’s autocratic (or monarchic) ranting isn’t merely him going rogue; it’s a distinct rhetorical feature of his entire administration, which has already set to work uprooting the checks and balances that underpin American democracy, and replacing it with something wholly different. 

On Tuesday night, Elon Musk claimed that “if the will of the president is not implemented, and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented. And that means we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy.” 

It’s not a bureaucracy Americans need fear, but a monarchy. 

Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that he has ended New York’s congestion pricing , boasting in all caps that he “SAVED” the city in a Truth Social post that ended with the declaration “LONG LIVE THE KING!”

Six weeks ago, the city of New York launched a program to enact tolls on cars in the central business district of Manhattan south of 60th Street. On Wednesday, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy sent a letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul overturning the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of the program.

During his presidential campaign, former New York resident Trump promised to end the program, and at one point, even Hochul wasn’t in favor of it. But in November, the governor revived the plan, and after it went into effect this year, the program got positive reviews. Traffic was reduced, public transportation received a boost, and greenhouse gas emissions and pollution went down. 

But that didn’t have any effect on the Trump administration. Duffy wrote in his letter that he  shares “the President’s concerns about the impacts to working class Americans who now have an additional financial burden,” and said the highway administration would work with the program’s sponsors “to discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations under this terminated pilot program.”

Hochul replied swiftly with a statement of her own posted to her X account, saying, “We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king.”

“We’ll see you in court,” Hochul added, announcing that the Metropolitan Transit Authority had initiated legal action to save the program.

Trump’s action seems to be an attempt to stir up the right-wing’s blind support of car culture, as well as a vindictive effort aimed at his hometown and former place of residence, which has spurned him ever since he entered politics. It remains to be seen how the fight over congestion pricing will play out in court, but only a president as petty as Trump would try to dictate a city’s traffic laws. 

Washington D.C.’s interim MAGA U.S. attorney is coming after Chuck Schumer for supposedly leading an “attack” on Supreme Court justices.

In a weirdly aggressive officewide email Wednesday, U.S. attorney Ed Martin cast Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the greater Trump administration as potential victims of violence specifically due to the rhetoric of Schumer (which has been mild at best compared to anything the president has ever said).

“One of the most abhorrent examples was when Senator Charles Schumer led a rally to attack US Supreme Court Justices,” Martin wrote in the email, referencing a tiff that Schumer and the conservative justices had over Roe v. Wade. “Schumer said, reading from notes in his hand: ‘I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released a whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.’” 

Martin then posited that these remarks, which Schumer walked back shortly after he made them five years ago, led directly to the alleged attacks at Justice Kavanaugh’s home, in which a man was arrested near Kavanaugh’s house with a knife, firearm, and zip ties.

Meanwhile, it’s obvious that revenge has been on the minds of the Trump administration from the moment he was defeated in 2020.

“We are the DC U.S. Attorney’s office; we are the guardians of federal workers,” Martin continued in the email, striking a clear “us versus them” chord, with “them” being anyone who doesn’t align perfectly with MAGA. “You and I must do whatever possible to assure government work is safe for all involved. We must protect our cops, our prosecutors, our DOGE employees, the President, and all other government employees.”

Schumer has yet to comment.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency may be trying to inflate the numbers of its spending cuts.

DOGE published an itemized list of canceled government contracts Monday accounting for an alleged $16 billion in spending. Almost half of those savings were attributed to a hefty $8 billion contract for D&G Support Services to provide “program and technical support services” to the Office of Diversity and Civil Rights at the the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

There was just one problem: The DOGE website included a screenshot of the award, which showed that it was only worth $8 million, not $8 billion, as was the amount listed directly below the image.

The New York Times reported on the discrepancy Tuesday, and determined that the original contract—which started September 30, 2022—had initially been listed at a value of $8 billion in the Federal Procurement Data System. On January 22, 2025, the number was updated to $8 million. The contract said it had been signed January 30, 2025, and terminated the same day.

Now, it looks like DOGE is trying desperately to cover the mistake.

A visit to DOGE’s wall of receipts reflected the award’s actual $8 million value, but when clicking through to the D&G contract, a familiar inflated number appeared: $8 billion, plus a different signing date and a termination date pushed up to 2027. DOGE had linked to the original inaccurate contract, which supports its claim of massive savings. Meanwhile, its list reflects the accurate price.

In a statement to MeidasTouch, D&G Support Services “acknowledges that the previously reported contract value of $8 billion was incorrect.”

“The discrepancy appears to have resulted from a clerical error in the original government filing upon contract reward. The contract value had a ceiling of $8 million,” the statement said.

To add insult to injury, USASpending.com revealed that of that ceiling, only $2.5 had actually been spent, meaning that DOGE’s savings weren’t even $8 million, but more like $5.5 million.

The DOGE website boasted a total of $55 billion in cuts, which remained unchanged between Tuesday and Wednesday, despite the correction to DOGE’s accounting. It’s unclear how many more errors reside in DOGE’s buggy list of savings.

Lawmakers were taken aback Wednesday by the president’s clear stance on budget negotiations, seemingly shocked that Donald Trump had endorsed a House GOP bill that prioritizes his agenda over the Senate’s alternative resolution.

In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump directly called out Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham for daring to tackle the president’s ambitious 2017 tax plan extension in a separate bill.

“The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM, however, unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it!” Trump posted. “We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.’”

“It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he added.

With the House in recess, Senate Republican leadership took the lead on drafting a potential salve—though it was apparently slimmer than Trump had hoped.

Conservatives are looking to cut approximately $2 trillion from entitlement programs, with Medicaid expected to take the biggest hit.

Graham’s measure consists of approximately $325 billion to fund the border and advance Trump’s deportation plans, as well as money to bolster defense and energy spending. Senate Republicans had opted to use a second reconciliation bill to extend Trump’s tax plan, which overwhelmingly benefits corporations and is projected to add as much as $15 trillion to the national deficit.

Trump has leaned into tariffs as a key component of affording an extension to the tax plan.

The Senate had teed up a vote on their resolution for later this week. Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to have lunch with Senate Republicans later Wednesday to “ease the tension,” reported NOTUS.

Still, Republicans—including some of Trump’s MAGA allies—were not expecting the president to bluster against their efforts.

“As they say, did not see that one coming,” Senator John Thune told Notus.

Donald Trump unloaded on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a Truth Social post Wednesday morning, accusing Zelenskiy of enjoying a “gravy train” from the United States and calling him a “Dictator without Elections.”

The post rambles, accusing the Ukrainian leader of being responsible for Russia’s invasion, claiming that the U.S. spent $200 billion more than Europe on Ukraine, and threatening Zelenskiy to “move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

Unsurprisingly, several of Trump’s claims aren’t true. The U.S. has actually allocated a total of $183 billion to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, with about $86.7 billion of it spent already. European commitments amount to $174 billion in addition to $50 billion in loans backed by revenue from frozen Russian assets. Hours before Trump’s post Wednesday, Zelenskiy warned that Trump needed to “be more truthful” and said that the president “lives in a disinformation space” fed by Russia.

Trump’s language and attitude towards Ukraine and Zelenskiy plays right into the hands of Russia and its autocratic leader Vladimir Putin. Putin has long been criticized for his anti-democratic path holding sham elections, so to pin the dictator label on Zelenskiy surely has him rejoicing. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has already praised Trump for putting the onus of the war on the U.S., NATO, and Ukraine.

“He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous administration to draw Ukraine into NATO,” Lavrov said Wednesday. “No Western leaders had ever said that, but he had said it several times. This is already a signal that he understands our position.”

As Russian and U.S. representatives negotiated about the war in Saudi Arabia without their European or Ukrainian counterparts this week, these comments from Trump and Russian leaders suggest that any proposed deal from their talks will almost certainly be bad for Ukraine and leave Russia in a position of strength, with Trump claiming victory regardless.

Trump finally decided to end the GOP’s internal quarreling on how to pass his budget—and broke a huge promise on Medicaid in the process.

For months, Republicans have been split on whether to split Trump’s massive budget agenda on the military, border security, and tax cuts for corporations into multiple, incremental bills (Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham’s preferred method) or combine them into one “big beautiful bill” (the House’s preferred method).

The president settled that debate with a Truth Social post on Wednesday morning.

“The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM … unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it!” the president wrote. “We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.’ It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

But the House bill Trump endorsed breaks his promise to never touch Medicaid, levying a whopping $2 trillion cut to the budget, including an expected $880 billion cut to the critical health program, in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich.*

“Social Security won’t be touched, other than if there’s fraud or something. It’s going to be strengthened. Medicare, Medicaid—none of that stuff is going to be touched,” Trump claimed as recently as Tuesday, during his and Elon Musk’s sitdown with Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

Some moderate Republicans have already come out against a bill that would slash Medicaid, which could leave thousands of their constituents without reliable access to care.

“​​I ran for Congress under a promise of always doing what is best for the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania,” Representative Rob Bresnahan wrote on X last Friday. “If a bill is put in front of me that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on, I will not vote for it.”

* This piece has been updated to correct the expected cuts to Medicaid under the House budget bill.

Republican Senators are being forced to grovel at the thrones of Donald Trump and Elon Musk to collect the very funding they appropriated in the first place.

Amid Trump’s sweeping freezes on spending, massive cuts to the federal workforce, and dismantling of government agencies, some Republican senators have been forced to make their appeals for funding (and mercy) directly to Trump’s Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials, according to a report Wednesday from The Washington Post.

While this system of pleading favors Trump allies who can dial up the president directly, not everyone is opting to give him a ring.

Senator Lisa Murkowski told the Post that she had been on the phone with “pretty much all the departments,” hoping to obtain funding in the face of federal freezes.

The Alaska Republican has spoken with the Environmental Protection Agency, Interior Department, and Agriculture Department, as well as lobbied the Trump administration to exempt Native American tribes from being affected by executive orders targeting programs for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito told the Post she had been working “aggressively” with EPA head Lee Zeldin to resume the grant program providing money for schools to buy electric buses. The EPA has paused more than 30 grant programs.

Senators Katie Britt from Alabama and Susan Collins of Maine each took their concerns about severe cuts to the National Institutes of Health directly to Trump’s new Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A new NIH policy announced earlier this month would cap “indirect cost” reimbursements, which cover all research expenses, at 15 percent for research institutions, effectively kneecapping entire fields of research.

Others took more desperate means to beseech Trump’s cadre: tweeting at them.

“I urge @SecRubio to distribute the $340 million in American-grown food currently stalled in U.S. ports to reach those in need,” Senator Jerry Moran wrote in a post on X earlier this month aimed at Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose agency absorbed some functions of USAID after Musk gutted the agency. “Time is running out before this life-saving aid perishes.”

He followed up with another post days later: “GOOD NEWS: State Dept. has approved shipping to resume, allowing NGOs to distribute the $560 million of American-grown food aid sitting in US & global ports to those in need. Thanks to @SecRubio for helping make certain this life-saving aid gets to those in need before it spoils.”

Senator Tommy Tuberville imagined a future where senators would have to approach the unelected DOGE czar Elon Musk with a line-item list, and beg him not to cut spending on infrastructure.

“If we have to lobby for, ‘Hey wait a minute, what about the bridge in Birmingham?’ or ‘There’s a bridge in Mobile or whatever.’ I think that could be very possible,” the Alabama Republican told reporters.

Crucially, federal agencies are still withholding funding, even after multiple judges ordered a pause on the president’s sweeping funding freeze, summoning a torrent of additional lawsuits alleging that the president is unlawfully withholding money in violation of Congress. The administration’s actions have jeopardized hundreds of billions of dollars to programs across the government, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

While Congress, in particular the House of Representatives, is vested with the power of the purse, Trump hopes to use a process called impoundment to refuse to spend the money appointed by Congress.

Donald Trump is trying to extend his authority over government agencies that Congress made independent.

The president issued an executive order Tuesday ordering these agencies to first send any proposed regulations to the White House for review. It also gives Trump the power to block the agencies from using funds for anything that goes against what he wants, and requires agencies to accept the Justice Department and Trump’s interpretation of the law as binding.

The agencies the order is going after include the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission. It partially covers the Federal Reserve in issues related to regulating Wall Street, but doesn’t include its monetary policies such as controlling interest rates.

The move is a blatant power grab on Trump’s part to control agencies that could push back against his agenda. Plus, it sets up a showdown with Congress over the funding given to these agencies, as the legislature appropriates funds to them for specific purposes. In effect, Trump is trying to take away Congress’s authority over such agencies.

“This is a power move over independent agencies, a structure of administration that Congress has used for various functions going back to the 1880s,” legal scholar Peter M. Shane told The New York Times.

Conservatives have long sought to weaken these independent agencies, if not bring them under total control of the president, in order to free business interests from what they see as restrictive regulations. Russell Vought, recently confirmed to run the Office of Management and Budget and an architect of the conservative manifesto Project 2025, said two years ago that such a presidential takeover was the goal.

“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” Vought said.

In a court filing Sunday, the Trump administration argued that the president has “unrestricted power” to fire agency heads. It seems that in the opinion of Trump and his fellow conservatives, such power is only the tip of the iceberg.

Infighting is brewing among the GOP’s congressional ranks, as Elon Musk’s takeover of the government and sweeping federal employee purge begins to hit red states.

Multiple Republican members of Congress  expressed anxiety and dissatisfaction to Axios regarding Trump and DOGE’s cuts, as agencies like USAID, the Federal Aviation Administration, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—agencies that many Republicans actually like and support—have been crippled. 

Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Axios that Trump is moving “too fast,” and that Musk and DOGE should adopt “a more surgical approach” instead of slashing indiscriminately, as some of their recent moves “violate restrictions that are in current law.” Collins also said the team is “making mistakes,” referencing the Trump administration accidentally firing USDA employees working amid a bird flu outbreak.

“Before making cuts rashly, the Administration should be studying and staffing to see what the consequences are. Measure twice before cutting. They have had to backtrack multiple times,” Representative Don Bacon said.

“We all want efficiencies, there is a way to do it, and the way these people have been treated has been awful in many cases,” Senator Lisa Murkowski opined. “Awful.”

The elderly Chuck Grassley told RadioIowa the situation is “a tragedy for people that are getting laid off,” but conceded that it was “an executive branch decision,” and that “Congress can’t do anything except complain about it.”

Only time will tell just how far Republicans will let this freight train go before speaking up and slowing it down.