The Republican party needs to unite if they want to win the midterms. But they are now further from unity than ever before.
Because Josh Hawley betrayed Donald Trump in the eleventh hour.
Hawley Votes to Limit Trump’s Venezuela Authority
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was among a group of Republican senators who supported a measure aimed at restricting President Donald Trump’s military options in Venezuela, marking an uncommon divergence from the administration’s policy.
The vote occurred amid recent U.S. actions, including the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Following the decision, Hawley addressed his stance, stating, “I love the president. I think he’s doing a great job. I just think, when it comes to Venezuela, which is what we’re voting on today — I think that if the president should determine that he needed to put troops on the ground in a country, Venezuela, I just think in Article I, we would need to vote on that.”
Trump responded critically on Truth Social, naming the senators involved and saying they “should never be elected to office again.”
Past Instances of Policy Differences
Hawley has generally aligned with Trump’s agenda but has differed on select issues. On health care, he supported a three-year extension of expired Obamacare premium subsidies, a position backed by Senate Democrats.
Regarding unions, Hawley expressed hesitation about reversing Trump’s executive orders on federal labor organizations, noting, “I don’t know. The public sector unions and private sector unions seem to be two different things.”
In another case, Hawley introduced a stock trading ban bill initially including the president and Vice President JD Vance, prompting Trump to refer to him as a “second-tier Senator” and question why he would “pass a Bill that [Nancy Pelosi] is in absolute love with — He is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats.”
Hawley later amended the bill to exclude them and commented that the president “wants to get it done.”
Additional Areas of Disagreement
Hawley also opposed aspects of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” particularly potential Medicaid cuts, warning it would be “a huge mistake” and urging his party to “do some soul-searching.”
He stated, “If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to get delivered for working-class people. You cannot take away healthcare from working people.”
These examples illustrate occasional points of friction between Hawley and the administration on policy details.
