In Trump’s Second Year, Congress Weighs How to Reassert Its Power – The New York Times

Congressional Memo

A Diminished Congress Weighs Whether to Reassert Its Power

Lawmakers head into President Trump’s second year facing questions about whether they can reclaim congressional clout in the face of his power grab.

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By Carl Hulse, Reporting from Capitol Hill, Jan. 2, 2026

Congress learned some hard lessons about the limits of its power during the first year of the second Trump administration, when Republican leaders in both chambers largely declined to check a president unconstrained by law or custom.

President Trump barreled ahead with scant deference to the House and Senate. He abruptly changed the statutory name of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, summarily withheld funds from congressional priorities, claimed broad tariff power that the Constitution invests in Congress, and launched military attacks off South America without authorization from the legislative branch.

Now, with midterm elections that will decide control of Congress less than a year off and with lawmakers hearing from anxious constituents about high prices and economic distress, Congress must decide whether to try to assert itself more and reclaim some of the power it has ceded to the president, or to continue to accept a shrinking role and diminished status.

“The president would be better off if the Republican House pushed back more,” said Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who has sometimes opposed Mr. Trump’s policies and approach. “I think his tariff policy would be better. I think it would be better on Ukraine. I think we could push him in a much better direction if he was open to it.”

“But,” added Mr. Bacon, who has opted not to seek re-election, “if you feel like you have a bunch of lackeys that are going to do whatever you say, then he doesn’t feel constrained.”

With both chambers controlled by Republicans loyal to the president, pushback from Capitol Hill has been scattershot and largely ineffective, and oversight virtually nonexistent. Even when some Republicans have been stirred to join Democrats in raising objections to the administration’s legally questionable actions, lawmakers have struggled to get the White House to back off or reverse course.

The president has the ability to move expeditiously; Congress, not so much.

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