Good morning, Wolf’s Den.
It’s Tuesday, and I want to zero in on something that’s quietly becoming one of the biggest political stories in the country:
The knives are coming out for Donald Trump, and they’re coming from inside his own party.
Not the House chaos crowd. Not the cable-news Republicans who thrive on spectacle.
I’m talking about Senate Republicans. The ones who usually protect the brand. The ones who keep their complaints private. The ones who, until now, treated “disagreement” like a career-ending event in Trump’s Republican Party.
But something has changed.
And the reason it’s changing is simple: Trump is losing control.
The issue that cracked the wall: healthcare
Let’s rewind.
Back in October, the government shut down. Democrats refused to go along with a Republican agenda unless there was movement on something voters actually care about, keeping health coverage affordable. Specifically, extending the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.
Those credits are not some niche policy detail. They are the difference between families being able to afford coverage, or getting slammed with higher premiums, higher deductibles, and less care.
And here’s where the story gets interesting.
Even after the government reopened in mid-November, the pressure did not go away. In fact, it got louder.
Throughout December, moderate Republicans started signing onto Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition to extend the premium tax credits.
Read that again.
Republicans joined a Democratic discharge petition because they know the truth: healthcare affordability is a political landmine, and Trump’s position is not good enough for them to hide behind.
They can feel it in their districts. They can hear it from voters. And they know what’s coming in the midterms.
Trump keeps getting rebuffed
And it’s not just healthcare.
Trump has also been rebuffed on the Epstein files, in direct contradiction to what he wanted. That matters, not only because of the substance, but because it signals something much bigger.
Trump has built his entire political identity around one demand: total loyalty.
If you disagree with him, you’re “against him.”
If you question him, you’re disloyal.
If you speak up, you get punished.
That has been the mentality for nearly a decade now. The fear-based politics of retaliation.
But now, for the first time in a long time, Republicans are starting to talk like people who don’t think Trump is untouchable anymore.
The real story is Trump’s obsession with control
There’s a line in the sand forming, and it’s not just about bills or votes. It’s about the basic fact that Trump cannot coexist with accountability.
Think about how fragile that is.
Imagine a president who cannot handle disagreement from his own party.
Imagine a leader who treats every debate as betrayal.
Imagine a White House where dissent equals punishment.
That’s not strength. That’s instability.
And it’s why we are seeing this moment emerge, where Republican senators are anonymously going to the press and essentially saying: this is not sustainable.
Because it isn’t.
While costs rise, Trump talks about Greenland
Now zoom out.
Look at what Trump is choosing to spend his energy on.
Have you heard him talk about lowering costs?
About making housing cheaper?
About making groceries affordable?
About making healthcare easier to pay for?
No.
Instead, we get Greenland.
We get bizarre foreign policy stunts.
We get Venezuela headlines.
We get ICE crackdowns that create chaos in communities.
We get nonstop culture war theatrics.
Trump is governing like a man chasing a legacy headline, not like a president trying to make life easier for working people.
And voters are noticing.
Republicans are noticing too, especially the ones who have to run for re-election in purple states and swing suburbs.
That’s why the cracks are showing.
This is what it looks like when the spell breaks
For years, Trump’s grip on the Republican Party was built on fear.
Fear of his base.
Fear of a primary.
Fear of being attacked.
Fear of being cast out.
But when the party starts realizing Trump is more liability than asset, the fear starts to fade.
And when that happens, the entire political landscape changes.
Because Trump’s power has always depended on one thing: the belief that he is inevitable.
That belief is weakening.
