Republicans had control of the White House and Congress, yet many of the conservative priorities that helped Donald Trump win the presidency never made it across the finish line. Now, one Republican congressman says the party's leadership has nobody to blame but itself.
Rep. Greg Steube of Florida delivered a blistering assessment of Republican congressional leadership during an appearance on Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight on Wednesday, arguing that the GOP spent two years protecting politically vulnerable moderates instead of delivering the agenda voters sent them to Washington to accomplish.
"This entire two years, everything that we did on the floor was to protect the mods, the moderates, yet ignoring conservatives and what our plans were and what we thought we needed to accomplish," Steube said.
His criticism comes after Republicans suffered devastating midterm losses, raising serious questions about the party's strategy, priorities, and leadership.
For Steube, the problem was not that conservatives demanded too much. It was that Republican leaders failed to deliver enough.
Steube pointed directly to the priorities that defined Trump's campaign: securing the southern border, strengthening immigration enforcement, and ensuring that only American citizens vote in federal elections.
"President Trump ran on closing the border, on immigration, on making sure that only citizens voted in our elections," he said.
But according to the Florida Republican, conservative lawmakers repeatedly encountered resistance from their own leadership whenever they tried to advance those priorities.
"The people of America sent us to Washington to close the border, make sure citizens vote in our elections," Steube added.
He singled out Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota for refusing to eliminate the legislative filibuster, which has prevented several House-passed Republican proposals from advancing through the Senate.
"My bill on banning biological men in women's sports ... is sitting in the Senate because they can't get 60 votes, and Thune refuses to nuke the filibuster to do it," Steube said.
He also pointed to the SAVE America Act, which Republicans passed in the House four times but failed to advance through the Senate.
The frustration among conservative voters, Steube argued, is entirely understandable.
"Our people are very frustrated. The conservatives in my district are very frustrated because they say, Look, we put you in the House, the Senate and the White House, and all these great things you said you were going to do, you didn't accomplish."
That is a difficult message for Republican leadership to ignore. Voters do not send politicians to Washington simply to watch them negotiate away the promises that earned their support.
The congressman also warned that Republicans could be making a serious strategic mistake by preserving the filibuster while Democrats prepare for another opportunity to control Washington.
Steube pointed to Democrats' 2021 effort to eliminate the procedure, which was blocked by then-Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
"They tried in '21, and Manchin and Sinema stopped it. They're gone," he said.
"You don't think that they're going to do that if they get the White House? They absolutely will."
His warning highlights a growing divide within the Republican Party: whether preserving Senate traditions is worth sacrificing legislation that conservatives believe voters explicitly demanded.
Steube also discussed Democrats' major victories in Texas, including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's defeat and Democrat James Talarico's election to the Senate.
He predicted that Democratic leadership would reverse Abbott's immigration enforcement policies.
"The things that Abbott did on the border obviously are going to be reversed by this Democrat," Steube said.
However, he believes Democrats could ultimately create their own political problems by pushing policies too far to the left.
"They're not going to be able to help themselves but go so far to the left and do all of these ridiculous things that the American people don't support," he said, predicting a Republican presidential victory in 2028.
Steube also called for federal prosecution if allegations that Democrats recruited a candidate sharing Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan's name to confuse Alaska voters are substantiated.
"Public reporting is saying that they obviously recruited this individual. That's a violation of federal law," Steube said. "DOJ should prosecute this to the fullest extent of the law."
The allegations would need to be established through an investigation before any criminal conclusion could be reached.
