US President Donald Trump has long promoted himself as a political outsider, someone who will expose abuses of power by elites and shift the focus of government from distant conflicts to domestic issues. Phrases like “Drain the Swamp” and “America First” proved to be a powerful rallying cry, inspiring the entire “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) Republican Party cadre.
But midway through his final term as president, Trump rolled back many of these ideas, pandering to the super-wealthy, sidelining an investigation into convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and launching an ongoing war with Iran.
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Lina Shah, a geopolitical adviser and strategist and former senior Republican congressional aide, said this shift in direction appears to have a big impact on Republicans running in the US midterm elections in November.
“In competitive races, some people are quietly distancing themselves,” Shah said, adding, “They’re talking about gas prices or local issues or, ‘I’m focused on my district,’ because the Iran war and the Epstein drip are already showing up in attack ads and soft polls.”
Here’s what you need to know about whether Republicans have softened their stance on these issues.
Which Republican congressman broke with President Trump over the Epstein file?
Trump has said he will declassify a trove of files held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about Epstein and his global network of contacts during the 2024 presidential campaign. President Trump’s future Cabinet members were also keen on this, with current FBI Director Kash Patel saying, “It’s time to put on your big boy pants and tell us who the pedophiles are.”
But a few months after taking office, Trump began dragging his feet, sparking a backlash from influential MAGA figures. President Trump began calling the entire issue a “hoax” and said Republicans were being tricked by Democrats into demanding an investigation into Epstein’s network.
Congress ultimately forced the release of the files with the help of a handful of Republicans who broke with Trump. The Trump administration released a collection of heavily redacted files, but continued to keep some secret. Meanwhile, all the Republicans who voted for mandatory release paid the price for their disobedience, and even three lost their jobs.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene left her Georgia seat in January 2026 after publicly clashing with President Trump over Epstein. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, lost her bid for the party’s nomination in her home state after President Trump refused to endorse her. Colorado’s Lauren Boebert narrowly won her own primary after angering Trump by supporting calls for transparency from Republican Thomas Massie, who was eager to reveal the contents of the file. Kentucky’s Massey also drew Trump’s ire and likely lost out on victory in the primary.
There will be no more wars with foreign countries.
President Trump has long said he would reduce the involvement of foreign military forces, bucking the interventionist tendencies of other recent Republican presidents. Now, he and his party are facing tough questions about the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, which influential figures in the MAGA movement, including political commentator Tucker Carlson, falsely claim: “This is Israel’s war. This is not America’s war.”
Some disgruntled MAGA supporters have suggested that President Trump used the war to distract from the Epstein scandal. Massey, a former congressman, summed up this sentiment: “Bombing a country on the other side of the world isn’t going to make the Epstein file disappear.”
Trump has sought to downplay the impact of the war, but voters, even within the Republican Party, believe he has broken his own promises, and the ratings-obsessed president’s overall approval ratings have fallen to record lows. “Seven months into an open-ended campaign with shifting goals, the promises look different to many voters,” Shah said.
But few Republicans responded to that national sentiment with votes in Congress. In Congress, Democrats have repeatedly tried to rein in President Trump’s war against Iran by passing resolutions pointing out that the president failed to get approval from Congress.
In September, just seven Republican House members joined Democrats in passing an anti-war bill. A small number of Republicans support a similar effort in the Senate. President Trump called Republican lawmakers who support the anti-war bill “unpatriotic” and said, “They should be ashamed.”
Similar to the Epstein scandal, President Trump has taken action against recalcitrant Republicans over the Iran war, including supporting a rival in the Louisiana primary, Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted for an anti-war bill that the Republican senator ultimately lost.
What happened to President Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp”?
One of President Trump’s most appealing promises has been to rid the country of a “deep state” establishment that he claims runs the country without accountability to the public on social issues, fiscal policy or foreign policy.
In a sense, Trump kept that promise. The entire federal government department, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has forced tens of thousands of federal employees from their jobs and dismantled agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The military has abandoned notions of racial, gender, and economic diversity. Everything from universities to Smithsonian museums became targets of campaigns against unqualified, diversity-obsessed elites.
But Mr. Shah, the Republican strategist, said lobbying groups, including some that support foreign governments, were being given more freedom, and ethics rules and watchdogs fighting corruption were weakened.
At his inauguration, Trump was literally surrounded by the world’s wealthiest people, some of whom went on to serve as part of his administration.
