Six months after his triumphant return to Washington, President Donald Trump is racking up victories left and right as Republicans fall in line behind his MAGA agenda.
No less than the left-wing Politicoconceded that Trump "keeps steamrolling Congress" in his historic push to remake the political order.
Trump secured a landmark achievement this month with the enactment of the "Big, Beautiful Bill," which fully funds his border wall and expands ICE into the largest law enforcement agency in the country.
Most GOP critics of Trump's mega bill set aside their concerns about its cost and voted to pass it before Trump's July 4th deadline.
A last-minute threat from budget hawks fell apart in a matter of hours after Trump put pressure on "grandstanders" in the House GOP. It remains unclear what, if any, concessions Trump offered to hard-right Republicans to win their support.
Trump has continued to face pushback from some Republicans concerned about cuts to government programs that form part of the safety net in rural America. But most in the party have signed on to Trump's sweeping legislative reforms, which have passed along party lines and with little time spent standing on ceremony.
For instance, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted Thursday to advance Trump's former defense lawyer, Emil Bove, to serve as a federal judge. Democrats stormed out in anger as Republicans ignored their objections concerning Bove, who was the subject of a whistleblower complaint.
The new dynamic on Capitol Hill is a dramatic shift from Trump's first term, when he had yet to dominate the GOP establishment and was often forced to use the executive pen to advance his priorities.
Trump still has a handful of diehard critics in the GOP, such as Rep. Thomas Massie (KY), the only Republican in the House to vote twice against Trump's mega bill. Massie is also stoking drama over the Epstein files, a controversy Trump has blasted as a distraction and a "hoax" to discredit his achievements.
Beyond the Capitol, Trump has put pressure on influential institutions aligned with the left, winning concessions from prominent universities and news organizations.
Critics of Trump's take-no-prisoners approach say he is stifling dissent, but to many on the right, the new situation is a marked improvement after years of broken promises from "RINOS" in Congress.
Indeed, under Trump's leadership, the GOP is unified and delivering major reforms that eluded the party for years.
Trump secured another victory Friday as House Republicans passed his $9 billion rescissions package, which cancels spending on foreign aid and left-leaning public broadcasters like NPR.
"REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED….BUT NO MORE," he wrote. "THIS IS BIG!!!"
