Trump’s Dwindling Power

On Thursday, President Trump said he was prepared to withdraw the nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general rather than accede to demands by two Republican senators to kill the sweetheart deal that gives Trump permanent immunity from the IRS. He said on social media that he could just wait until the two Senate holdouts, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, were out of office in the next Congress and then reappoint Blanche; in the meantime, Blanche could function on an acting basis.

But as Cornyn quickly pointed out, there is no guarantee that the next Senate will produce a majority willing to confirm Blanche. More importantly, this breach of ordinary courtesy only stiffens the resolve of other Republican senators not to bend to Trump’s wishes.

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Exhibit A is the majority leader, John Thune of South Dakota. When Trump tried to put all legislative business on hold until Congress passed the SAVE America Act to give him control of elections, Thune refused to do his bidding. Thune and his caucus also refused to accede to Trump’s demand to get rid of the filibuster.

“He gets obviously frustrated with me because he sees me as the person that’s the impediment to some of the things he wants to get done,” Thune said in an interview yesterday with Politico. “But as I continually point out … I don’t make this stuff up. Math is math … He thinks I can wave the magic wand. I wish it were that easy.”

Now Thune is trying to wrap up the legislative session so that members of his caucus can get home to campaign. At stake is the Republican majority and Thune’s job as leader. “You end up … basically for the 60 or 90 days heading into an election, fighting among Republicans, which to me seems really counterproductive, going into an election that’s pretty high-stakes,” Thune said.

What stands in the way is budget reconciliation. The latest obstacle to getting a reconciliation bill passed is Democratic demands, shared by some Republicans such as Susan Collins of Maine, that Congress kill a proposed OMB rule that would give Trump’s White House political control over all federal grants. One option under discussion is for Congress to pass a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded through December 4 and sideline the proposed OMB rule. And once again, Senate Republicans are stiffing Trump and treating him as irrelevant.

Meanwhile, Trump’s endorsed candidate for the South Carolina seat of Lindsey Graham, the late senator’s sister, Darline, is in big trouble. Trump impulsively proposed her for interim senator and then to run for the full term, but without taking local political soundings. If he had, Trump would have found that she is likely to go down to defeat.

A dozen Republican candidates have filed to run in the August 11 primary election, and then South Carolina has a top-two runoff election on August 25. Darline Graham is largely unknown in local political circles, and the field includes Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, and former Gov. Mark Sanford. Most South Carolina pols would be surprised if Graham even made the runoff. The state’s GOP voters have already rejected Trump’s endorsed candidate for governor.

Even odder, given Trump’s abrupt endorsement, is the fact that Graham’s own record is decidedly non-Trumpian. Her whole public career has been as an advocate for the blind and the disabled. She led South Carolina’s Commission for the Blind, and has had other government posts working for vocational rehabilitation for people with disabilities. In 2026, she was elected president of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind. She seems to be a person of genuine compassion, a concept unknown to Trump.

The thing about power based on intimidation is that you have it—until you don’t.

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