'Spines Out of Storage': GOP Senators Line Up to Tear Trump's Agenda Apart

Federal judges are auditioning for the Supreme Court; Trump doubts J.D. Vance; and Trump melts down over the Reflecting Pool

Good afternoon. I’m John Byrne, and this is AlterNet America.

Senate Republicans are openly preparing to dismantle pieces of Trump’s agenda as MAGA discipline cracks ahead of the midterms. Conservative appeals court judges are writing crude, viral opinions in what legal observers call open auditions for a Supreme Court seat. Trump is privately questioning whether JD Vance has what it takes to inherit his movement, and floating Marco Rubio instead. And Trump spent Friday morning melting down on Truth Social because the New York Times reported on the costs of his Reflecting Pool renovation.

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GOP Rebels Are Lining Up to Tear Trump’s Agenda Apart

Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is one of a growing number of Senate Republicans signaling they are done carrying water for the White House.

The image of Cassidy seated stone-faced as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before the Senate HELP Committee in April is the picture of where the MAGA coalition is in 2026.

Republicans on the Hill are reading the same midterm polling everyone else is reading. They see what is coming. And they are starting to position themselves accordingly.

“John Cornyn (R-Texas) is a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, but having lost his re-election bid, he’s now eligible to join the Louisiana Republican senator Bill Cassidy, who lost his primary in the … YOLO Republicans [caucus],” said retired radio journalist and NYTimes columnist Robert Siegel. “The idea is that you’ve been loyal to Donald Trump in nearly everything, but now that you’ve been defeated by a MAGA-backed opponent, you’re a lame duck. You can actually vote in accordance with your real principles, assuming you can remember what those were.”

Under this scenario YOLO Republicans might “actually influence events now that their spines are out of storage,” Siegel added.

The discipline that held the party in line through the first year of the second Trump term is breaking down. Senators who once whispered their concerns are now saying them on the record.

Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment. He has spent the last several months publicly pressing Kennedy on vaccine policy. He is not alone.

The MAGA ranks are dissolving in real time. Not because anyone in the Senate found a conscience. Because the math changed.

Federal Judges Are Auditioning for the Supreme Court in Public

A growing group of conservative appeals court judges have started writing opinions that read less like rulings and more like job applications.

Justice Samuel Alito is widely expected to step down at the end of this Supreme Court term. Republican senators say they are ready to push a replacement through before the midterms.

Ninth Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke opened a March dissent with the line “This is a case about swinging dicks.” The case involved a nude spa. VanDyke had previously filmed a video dissent on a gun case with a Kalashnikov mounted on the wall behind him.

Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho, who spent two decades defending birthright citizenship, reversed himself in 2024 to align with Trump’s “invasion” framing. Ho is an immigrant from Taiwan.

Fifth Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham, a former Alito clerk, wrote in a dissent that courts “don’t get to demand the President’s homework.”

A Harvard law professor put it plainly: VanDyke is auditioning for a norm-breaking president by breaking norms. The 2017 rules change that killed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees means a judge no longer needs to win over the other side. He only needs to win over Trump.

So the opinions get louder. The language gets cruder. The Kalashnikov goes on the wall.

Trump Is Already Wondering if JD Vance Has What It Takes

President Trump has been privately asking aides and allies whether his vice president is the right person to inherit the MAGA movement. He usually answers his own question: he’s not so sure.

Trump has been polling people in his orbit on whether they prefer Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio. At a Rose Garden dinner this month, he asked guests directly: “Who likes JD Vance? Who likes Marco Rubio?” He declined to endorse either one.

Trump has needled Vance for taking vacations, for fumbling the Ohio State championship trophy on the South Lawn, for his shoes, and for interjecting in conversations. In November, Trump asked Vance in front of Republican senators why he could not be more subservient, like the officials who work for Xi Jinping.

Vance campaigned for Viktor Orban in Hungary. Orban lost. Vance went to the Indiana statehouse to push Republicans to redraw the state’s maps. They refused.

A nine-term Indiana Republican said the episode “should be a wake-up call for anyone who thinks Trump will be able to pass the MAGA torch to Vance.”

Vance’s approval rating sits at 39 percent. In Bangor, Maine, a supporter asked whether Vance should be the 2028 nominee said, “Him or Rubio.” On the back of his hat was a third name: Kennedy.

Trump Melts Down Over the Reflecting Pool. Again.

The President of the United States spent the night posting in all caps about a pool.

Trump went off on a long Truth Social rant attacking the New York Times for reporting on the questionable contracts and ballooning costs of his renovation of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.

He called the paper “Failing.” He told it to “spend more of its energy fixing its broken ‘shop.’” He demanded it celebrate “America’s greatness.” He promised the work would be done by July 4.

The post included screenshots of similarly long Truth Social posts from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is apparently also focused on the pool.

The Times had reported on the contracts. That was the offense. Not the costs themselves. The reporting on the costs.

Trump wrote that the Times should be highlighting his efforts to bring the pool “BACK TO LIFE!”

It is a pool. It does not have a life.

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—John Byrne / Co-Founder, AlterNet America