It’s not that every Republican lawmaker thinks Donald Trump has had a perfect second term. But if you ask them about their disagreements with the president, they struggle to name anything.
Even after Trump has spent the first half of his second term attacking fellow Republicans, waging a largely unsuccessful war in Iran, imposing unpopular tariffs, accepting a luxury jet from Qatar, pocketing more than a billion dollars from the crypto industry, tearing down the East Wing, trying to conceal the Epstein files, picking fights with the Pope, celebrating Robert Mueller’s death, sharing racist posts online, making thousands of stock trades, threatening war with Greenland, and making an endless stream of false or misleading claims, House and Senate Republicans say they have few — if any — complaints.
Some even say he’s been flawless.
While a small number of Trump dissenters usually get all the attention in Washington, the reality on Capitol Hill is far different: Most Republicans are in lockstep with the president, even as Trump grows more unpopular and his behavior grows more erratic.
When asked if Trump had done anything this term that he disagreed with, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said he couldn’t come up with a single thing.
“I suggest we probably try to give him a third term,” Nehls told MS NOW — before catching himself and, in line with Trump’s false claims that he actually won the 2020 election, correcting the number. “Actually, really should be a fourth.”
On big issues, such as the war with Iran, Trump was right, and his doubters simply lack foresight, Nehls said.
“At some point in time, your children will appreciate what Donald Trump did in 2026 to make sure Iran never has a nuclear weapon,” he said.
And even on the smaller issues, Nehls said Trump had aced every test.
Threatening war with Greenland? “We need to protect Greenland.”
Feuding with the Pope? “The Pope, I think, learned his lesson.”
Of the more than two dozen Republicans MS NOW interviewed, few were as enthusiastic about Trump’s performance as Nehls. But the Texas Republican was far from alone in his unwavering support of the president.
When MS NOW asked Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., if Trump had done anything he disagreed with this term, Issa noted he’s finally free to say how he really feels because he’s not seeking reelection in his moderate district.
“So I’m happy to say no, he hasn’t,” Issa said. “He’s been overcoming organizations like MS NOW finding something wrong with everything he does.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said any shortcomings are the fault of Congress — Democrats, in particular — and not Trump.
“He’s done an amazing job,” Moreno told MS NOW. “He’s transformed a lot of really, really important things. The more important part is what we haven’t done. His grade is a lot higher than ours.”
While there were plenty of Republicans willing to give Trump perfect marks, GOP lawmakers often found a way to answer the question in a way that praised Trump but avoided the soundbite that the president had performed impeccably.
Sometimes that meant finding a minor point of disagreement. Sometimes it meant saying they had disagreements but declining to enumerate them. And sometimes it meant asking for Trump to be even Trumpier.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said the president had done virtually nothing wrong.
“As one of the most conservative members of Congress, I agree with the president 99.9% of the time, and so my only thing would be, Mr. President, let’s deport more illegals,” Ogles said.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., initially said she couldn’t think of any disagreements with Trump, before recalling that the president vetoed her bill to fund a drinking water project in December.
At the time, Boebert said it may have been retaliation after she and others had pushed for the release of files regarding the investigation and imprisonment of Jeffrey Epstein. But now, Boebert struck a more conciliatory tone.
Of course, not every Republican wanted to engage with the question. Reps. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., and Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., both told MS NOW they were running late and quickly walked away.
Asked again a few weeks later, Biggs simply refused to answer. “I’m not going to play that game,” he said. “That’s an absurd game.”
Others offered a variation of the same response.
“We’re not going to speculate on that,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said. “No comment.”
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said he’d rather “focus on the areas of agreement.”
“I’m not going to get into enumerating,” Hoeven said. “Obviously, I support his overall agenda.”
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said there’s probably something he’d do differently, but he couldn’t think of anything offhand.
“I’m sure there is,” Marshall said. “I’d have to sit there and think about it, and I just can’t think of anything off the top of my head.”
A few Capitol Hill allies offered straightforward answers about their disagreements — even if those disagreements were relatively minor.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said Trump should be “way more aggressive on Delcy Rodriguez,” the new leader of Venezuela after U.S. officials arrested Nicolás Maduro and sidelined opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., noted that he voted to overturn a Trump executive order restricting the ability of federal workers to join a union, and that, hypothetically, if Trump put boots on the ground in Iran, he would disagree with that.
Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., had a quick answer: “He pardoned Rod Blagojevich.”
Bost once led the charge to impeach Blagojevich, and he publicly urged Trump not to commute the former Illinois governor’s conviction on corruption charges. (Trump commuted the sentence in 2020 and pardoned Blagojevich in 2025.)
Bost also joined two colleagues — Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., and Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La. — in saying he wanted Trump to be more aggressive with Iran. Bost said the U.S. shouldn’t “allow them to rebuild themselves up” during peace talks. Hern said Trump has been “too kind to Iran,” saying the country’s leaders “can’t be trusted.”
Higgins was even more direct.
“He hasn’t finished the job with Iran yet,” Higgins said, suggesting that Trump “wipe them out.”
“No power, no bridges, no hope of a regime recovery,” Higgins added.
Higgins continued that he could offer those critiques without angering Trump because he has a different tone from a Republican like Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who lost his primary election after a public fight with Trump.
“Some of these guys up here are quite full of themselves, shall we say,” Higgins said. “You know, they have an arrogance to them that most Americans don’t really like. So the president is not the kind of guy who has to tolerate that sort of thing.”
While taking issue with the Iran war may seem like an easy way to answer the question — particularly given that the U.S. is still at war and the Strait of Hormuz is virtually at a standstill — plenty of Republicans said Trump had handled the war perfectly.
When asked about Iran specifically, Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., who had no complaints overall, said gas prices will go back down “as soon as this is over with,” and said lawmakers shouldn’t pass a defense authorization bill with any constraints on Trump’s ability to wage war in Iran.
“I’m not going to handcuff the president like that, and I don’t think that would be in the best interest of our country,” Carter said.
Tariffs, traditionally a rift between Trump’s “America First” brand of politics and more laissez-faire conservatives, were an issue for some lawmakers — but not one that would fracture their relationship with Trump.
Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., acknowledged that, in an agriculture-focused district, some of his constituents “have been affected by the tariffs.” But generally, Murphy said, it’s nothing he “would raise a kerfuffle about.”
“Good Lord, nobody’s going to agree 100% on things with every administration,” Murphy said.
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., similarly said he might have preferred a different approach on trade — but, in the same breath, he gave Trump credit for his victories.
“Even though I’m not a fan of tariffs, he’s gotten concessions from other countries that I think we should duly note,” Smith told MS NOW.
Out of all the lawmakers asked about their disagreements with Trump, only one mentioned health care policy, which has largely fallen by the wayside in the Republican agenda.
“We should have done more on health care,” Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., said. But, when asked if Trump had been receptive to that critique, she shifted blame back to Congress.
“I don’t consider it to be a critique,” Spartz said. “It’s just something that I think we should be doing more — and he’s trying to.”
Time and again, Republicans made it clear they were ecstatic with the president’s policies, even if they noted his personality can sometimes rub some people the wrong way. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., acknowledged some of those personality-driven disagreements, but said that doesn’t change his support for the president.
“The only thing I think they’re not happy with — personality, delivery, stuff like that,” Norman said of his constituents. “They like his policies. I mean, he carries a big stick all over the country, and rightfully so.”
Considering the personality concerns, perhaps Norman would disagree with the president’s decision to post a meme in April depicting Trump as Jesus healing the sick?
“No,” Norman said. “Look, Trump is Trump.”
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