[sdenton4]

Congress has lots of power, it's a question of whether they do anything. Currently the Republicans are uniformity falling in line with the authoritarian executive orders, even those that abrogate well established congressional powers.

[bluGill]

Remember we are still in the first 100 days. Congress typically falls in line for the first few months (not always 100 days, but it is a good round number). As the term goes on though congress tends to start looking to the next election and they start to opposed unpopular things because they will lose in 2 years. Trump is risking a democrat super majority in the house in 2 years if he is too unpopular, and 20 republicans are up for election in the senate, if even half of them turn that would be a majority for the democrats and a shot that the other republican senators (who want to win election in 2-4 more years) will pay attention to.

But we need to get through the first few months before any of this will play out. And after that there is still a long time before the 2026 elections.

[kelnos]

I think this is a good point. I'm not convinced that we can take all that much for granted during this presidential term. Trump is all about violating norms, and now he has Musk flipping votes in Congress by threatening to fund primary challengers.

But the cynic in my knows that a big chunk of a legislator's job is figuring out how to get re-elected next term. If (when) Trump does things unpopular with regular Republicans, and legislators are seen to be doing nothing to help their constituents, they'll start to worry they won't get re-elected.

It'll be the same thing that's happened with Democrats: Republican voter turnout will suffer because the candidates in front of them aren't doing anything useful for them.

[9dev]

What on earth gave you the idea this administration will be anything like a previous one? I don’t think we can assume the rules will just stay the same.

[bluGill]

So long as there are elections in 2026 the looming election will have an effect. I doubt Trump can get away with trying to stop elections or even manipulating them (much - there is always manipulation). As such congress will soon start behaving like elections matter and they might not be elected if they are unpopular.