President Donald Trump has pushed the boundaries of presidential power and influence throughout his second administration, but his pressure campaigns on Republican-led states represent his latest break from conservative orthodoxy.
With Texas delivering a political win for Trump this week regarding his desire for Republican-led states to redistrict their congressional maps mid-decade to provide the GOP with more opportunities to keep its House majority after next year’s midterm elections, the president and his White House are encouraging other states, including Indiana, Florida, Missouri, and Ohio, to do the same.
This week, Trump also previewed an executive order that would prohibit voting absentee by mail, despite some Republican-led states, such as Utah, using mail-in ballots for their elections.
Trump’s pressure campaigns on Republican-led states coincide with pressure he has put on Congress, higher education institutions, and even private companies, and they are notable for being at odds with conservative orthodoxy concerning federal government overreach.
“Well, Trump has gone against conservative orthodoxy on several fronts,” Republican strategist Cesar Conda told the Washington Examiner.
For example, Trump’s pressure on private companies, from Apple Inc., Nvidia, and Intel Corporation to The Coca-Cola Company, conflicts with conservative orthodoxy related to free markets. On Friday, for instance, Trump announced that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, whom earlier this month the president wanted fired, had agreed to give the federal government $10 billion or about 10% of the U.S. chipmaker’s equity. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later confirmed the news on social media.
Simultaneously, Trump declared a public safety emergency last week under the D.C. Home Rule Act, launching a federal takeover of Washington’s law enforcement as he cracks down on crime in the district.
But Conda, a founding partner of all-Republican lobbying firm Navigators Global, added: “He’s right on these issues [redistricting and voting] because they impact national elections, especially at the presidential level.”
To that end, Trump and the White House are preparing to mount a pressure campaign on Gov. Mike Braun (R-IN), who has not committed to calling his own special session so Indiana Republicans can redistrict their state’s congressional map mid-decade like Texas, and other members of the Indiana GOP who remain undecided about the strategy. The White House next week is expected to host more than four dozen Indiana Republicans at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. on Tuesday before primarying opponents as part of that campaign, as Braun apportions responsibility to his state’s legislature.
“Texas never lets us down,” Trump wrote on social media. “Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing. More seats equals less Crime, a great Economy, and a STRONG SECOND AMENDMENT.”
Spokespeople for Braun did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
Meanwhile, Trump endorsed Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-TX) as “a True Warrior for Republicans” after his state’s new congressional map passed his chamber following a Democratic attempt to stop it through a quorum break.
Trump has similarly publicly supported a Missouri Republican proposal to restrict the state’s map mid-decade, the president contending the national GOP is “going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!”
With respect to absentee voting by mail, Trump this week took to social media repeatedly to implore states to “END MAIL-IN VOTING, AND GO TO PAPER BALLOTS,” at least according to one post. The president continued in another post, “If we do these TWO things, we will pick up 100 more seats, and the CROOKED game of politics is over.”
In his original post, Trump wrote on Monday, “Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes.”
“They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do,” he went on.
Claremont McKenna College political professor John Pitney underscored Trump’s use of the word ‘agent,’ saying that “no traditional conservative would have said.”
“It is a departure from traditional Republican philosophy, which included a reverence for federalism,” Pitney, a former Republican strategist, told the Washington Examiner. “In fact, many Republicans called themselves Tenthers, in honor of the 10th Amendment.”
A White House official defended Trump’s pressure campaigns, disagreeing that they are a new phenomenon for him or his predecessors.
“There’s nothing unique about President Trump exerting pressure on the states,” the official told the Washington Examiner. “This is something that former presidents have done as well, [former] President [Joe] Biden being one of those.”
The White House official cited Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandates and the Biden Environmental Protection Agency’s “stringent” standards for gas and electric stoves and ovens.
When pressed on how, as a Democrat, Biden’s federal government intervention was not atypical compared to Trump, the official emphasized that “there are a lot of issues in which the president has given the power back to the states,” pointing to the EPA and abortion.”
“Education he’s giving back to the states, public education, because he doesn’t think the federal government should be in charge of that,” the source said. “He does believe that there are things that the states are better equipped to service their constituents than the federal government is capable of doing.”
The White House official also downplayed Trump’s use of endorsements, asserting that the president adopted a similar approach during his first administration.
“That’s just politics, and we have to have unity in our party,” she said.
Trump’s pressure campaigns, at least with redistricting, have prompted a political response from Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate.
Newsom this week signed legislation using a mid-decade redistricted congressional map to counter its Texas counterpart in a special election in November. California has an independent redistricting commission, and unlike Texas, its state legislature does not typically take part in the process.
“It’s official. California’s special election is ON for November 4th,” Newsom this week wrote on social media. “The People of California will be able to cast their vote for a congressional map. Direct democracy that gives us a fighting chance to STOP Donald Trump’s election rigging. Time to fight fire with fire.”
Beyond the states and Congress, Trump has placed pressure on media companies, including CBS, ABC, and the Wall Street Journal, and law firms, such as Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. These firms, along with eight others, have consented to a combined $940 million in pro bono services for Trump.
GOP TRADES PLACES WITH DEMOCRATS WITH UPHILL BATTLE TO MESSAGE TRUMP’S BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL
That does not include presidential pressure on educational institutions, including Columbia University, which paid a $221 million fine to settle the federal government’s claims against it and unfreeze federal funding. The Education Department this week found George Mason University improperly used race in its employment practices and is now seeking an apology from its president.