Intervening in Gop's Relationship with President Trump

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Mr. Speaker, I want to just say that Republicans have endured a rather lopsided relationship with Donald Trump this year--dare I say, abusive. I hope you will consider this a Republican intervention. For the record, these are not attacks. They are just facts.

Healthcare: Republicans cut $1 trillion from Medicaid with their big, ugly bill, threatening their own vulnerable constituents, when three- quarters of Medicaid enrollees are in red States, and rural hospitals across this country are struggling to stay open.

Republicans then shut down the government to avoid a vote on extending ACA subsidies, only for Trump to later come out in support of extending these subsidies.

A recent Navigator poll shows that Americans blame Trump and congressional Republicans for rising healthcare premiums by a 26-point margin. Surprise: Americans also overwhelmingly blame Republicans for the shutdown. I see tread marks everywhere.

Redistricting: The drama started when Trump called Greg Abbott and demanded five more Republican seats in Texas, triggering California's redistricting efforts that could cost California Republicans five seats. It is funny how my Republican colleagues were, are, and remain silent when Texas, Ohio, Missouri, and North Carolina gerrymander, but throw a tantrum when California punches back.

Chip deal: I don't mean nachos or potatoes. I mean the AI, computing, and national security kind. For years, my China-hawk Republicans warned about the competition with the CCP, only for Trump to ignore them and green-light Nvidia H200 chip sales to China in exchange for a 25 percent fee. What happened to tough on China?

Boat strikes: Republicans have abdicated their constitutional war powers authority, allowing the Trump administration to carry out extrajudicial killings off the coast of Venezuela under the guise of stopping drug trafficking. Meanwhile, Trump just pardoned the President of Honduras, who was convicted of helping to move 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. My colleagues need to square the circle for me. Please do it.

Deficit: Republicans who call themselves fiscal hawks stayed true to President Trump and got rewarded with $2 trillion added to the national debt, bringing us to a whopping $38 trillion. How many zeroes are in that number? Far too many for Americans to afford.

Then, there was the mighty whiplash of the Epstein files. Trump and Republicans spent an entire year trying to block the release of the Epstein files, only for Trump to reverse course at the last minute when he realized the release was inevitable.

Tariffs and affordability: For a full year, Republicans said nothing while Trump rolled out illegal, arbitrary, and chaotic tariffs that raised prices across the board. In just 8 months of Trump 2.0, the average American household spends $700 more on basic necessities. This season's most popular holiday gifts are up 26 percent since last year. During the affordability crisis, Trump banned the word ``affordability'' from Republicans' vocabulary, but ``affordability'' is still in the dictionary and still on people's minds. The economy is an A-plus-plus-plus hot mess.

Farmers: Earlier this year, Republicans watched quietly as Trump destroyed USAID, an agency that bought crops from American farmers, many of whom backed Trump and the Republicans in 2024. When beef costs reached record highs in October, they watched again as Trump proposed buying beef from Argentina rather than American farmers. Last month, Republicans forced a vote denouncing the horrors of socialism. This week, they are applauding Trump for using it to bail out the farmers that his administration failed.

Please consider this an intervention and get out of this lopsided relationship now.

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