It’s not just foot-dragging—it’s sabotage. As President Trump rolls out his second-term America First agenda, both the House and the Senate are finding ways to stall it. And yes—Republicans are in on it.
As President Trump rolls out his second-term America First agenda, one group is consistently slowing it down: Congress. Yes, even the Republicans.
The head of the White House budget office on Wednesday defended the Trump administration’s push to enact sweeping cuts to federal funding, even as some Republican senators voiced concerns and raised questions about the breadth of them.
In opening remarks in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said the package – known on Capitol Hill as “rescissions” – awaiting a Senate vote was “carefully crafted, with input from Congress, to cut funding the American people find wholly objectionable.” The package, which claws back about $9.4 billion in previously appropriated government spending, was approved by the House earlier this month.
During the hearing, several Republican senators raised questions about the types of programs the Trump administration has proposed to slash or questioned how it is planning to go about implementing them. The White House sent the spending cuts request to Congress in early June as it seeks to formalize a slew of DOGE cuts to federal funding. – CNN
I know, sexy stuff, huh?
You’d think, with a Republican president and GOP control of Congress, they’d be sprinting to codify Trump’s executive orders—securing the border, scrapping DEI, and gutting the swamp for good. But nope. The House moved it along, watered down, but still on message. Now it’s sitting in the Senate like a hot potato, and now the Senate’s acting like someone hid their calendar and unplugged the clocks. And now we get delay, dithering, and a thousand committee hearings.
I Rock, I Ran Got Boomed By The Orange Man. Now can we please get back to those 9 Billion dollar DOGE cuts and the Epstein Client List or nah? pic.twitter.com/OJcewn3Pr5
— The Disruptor
(@IWashington) June 22, 2025
Let’s break down exactly why—and why it’s a problem.
1. The GOP Civil War, in Slow Motion
Not every Republican in Congress is on board with the MAGA movement. Many are holdovers from the Bush-Romney era—country club conservatives who talk about “principles” while quietly rolling their eyes at border walls, trade tariffs, and Trump’s war on bureaucracy.
They’ll vote for the occasional symbolic bill. But when it comes time to turn Trump’s orders into law? They vanish faster than a press secretary at a Biden Q&A.
2. Codifying Means Committing
That’s why so many lawmakers refuse to codify the Trump America First agenda—it would tie their hands and expose their double-dealing.
Executive orders are easy. They’re temporary, reversible, and require zero courage from lawmakers. But once Congress passes a law?
They own it. They’re on record. They can’t blame Trump if it goes sideways or upsets their donors. And they can’t quietly pretend to support an issue while stalling it behind closed doors.
In other words: laws leave fingerprints. EOs don’t.
3. Follow the Money
Many of the programs Trump wants to gut—like DEI contracts, Ukraine funding pipelines, and bloated federal grants—pay the bills for DC consultants, lobbyists, and campaign bundlers.
Codifying Trump’s agenda would cut off those gravy trains.
So instead, lawmakers posture for the cameras while protecting their donors behind the scenes.
4. Bureaucrats Hate Being Told What to Do
Codifying policies means agencies have to comply. They can’t just “reinterpret” the rule, slow-walk implementation, or wait for a new president to undo it.
Think about it:
- A law that defunds federal DEI programs? Career bureaucrats would have no choice but to shut them down.
- A law that enforces border security? DHS can’t “reprioritize” resources—they have to enforce the law.
This is why they prefer the current chaos. Laws close loopholes. Executive orders invite resistance.
5. The Swamp Is Just Waiting Him Out
Don’t be fooled—Washington is just running out the clock.
They don’t want to codify Trump’s agenda. They’re hoping time, lawsuits, or chaos will kill it quietly.
They see the lawsuits. The headlines. The deep-state resistance. And they’re hedging their bets. Why lock in an agenda they think might be reversed in two years?
So instead of building momentum, they stall, study, edit, and delay—hoping someone else takes the fall, or that the courts step in and do the dirty work. And they are.
And if Trump does succeed? You already know what happens next: they’ll suddenly remember they were “supporters” all along.
Quick Clarification:
Trump’s America First agenda is coming through two tracks:
-
DOGE cuts (smaller, executive-ordered spending rescissions), and
-
The One Big Beautiful Bill (the sweeping legislation that passed the House and is now stalling in the Senate).
When I say “Congress is dragging its feet,” I mean both chambers and both efforts.
Why This Matters
The Trump America First agenda won’t survive unless it’s backed by real law, not just reversible executive orders.
This isn’t about loyalty to Trump.
It’s about whether our elected representatives actually believe in the agenda they claim to support. Or whether they’re just using it for votes while keeping their foot on the brakes.
Just look at Thomas Massie’s swipe at Trump over the Iran strike—another “conservative” more interested in posturing than backing the mission.
America First policies mean nothing if they’re not made permanent.
Without laws, Trump’s executive orders can be undone by the next president with the stroke of a pen. If Washington doesn’t act now to codify the border policies, the agency cuts, the DEI bans, then it’s all just noise.
WATCH (PBS): Senate Majority Leader John Thune insists “failure is not an option” when it comes to passing the DOGE rescissions. But that confidence masks a deeper problem: even within his own party, resistance is building—and quiet pushback might be all it takes to kill the cuts without ever having to vote them down.
What You Can Do
1. Call your representatives—yes, even the Republicans.
Ask them directly:
“Why haven’t you codified the Trump America First agenda in law?”
Put them on record. Let them squirm a little.
2. Stop supporting the seat-warmers.
Look up their voting records—not the speeches, the votes. If they’re stalling, challenge them in the primaries. No more free rides for fake fighters.
3. Talk about it. Loudly.
Share posts, start conversations, drop truth bombs. Trump’s agenda isn’t just about one man—it’s about a movement that can’t survive in silence.
4. Stay focused.
Ignore the media circus. They want you distracted. Stay locked in on what matters: Codifying the agenda. Locking it in. Making it permanent.
Because if the people elected to “drain the swamp” are secretly helping it refill, it’s not just cowardice—it’s betrayal.
They’ll get away with it. That’s the part that burns. The delays, the double-speak, the quiet betrayals—they’ve all but mastered the art of running out the clock. Codifying Trump’s agenda would mean accountability, disruption, and an end to the perks they’ve built careers protecting. So they’ll stall. They’ll smile. And then they’ll disappear back into the fog, just like always. That’s what they count on—that no one will notice until it’s too late.
So this isn’t about stopping them. It’s about calling it what it is. And if they’re going to gut the movement in plain sight, the least we can do is light the damn fog on fire and name every last one of them before they vanish.
Feature Image: Created in Canva Pro
The post Why Washington Is Stalling the Trump America First Agenda appeared first on An Americanist.
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