How Many Deaths for Congressional Republicans?

By Mike Koetting May 13, 2025

In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare writes: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.”

Republicans in Congress are today playing out their own version. By failing to take on any of the winnable small battles, they are slipping toward a situation where the entire foundation of the country could be up for grabs. Most Congressional Republicans understand that Donald Trump is playing fast and loose with the separation of powers—and in the process taking away Congressional power.

The erosion of Congressional power has been going on for a while, as pointed out by Phillip Wallach, an historian at the American Enterprise Institute. But the Trump presidency is pushing it into terra incognita and Congressional Republicans are letting it happen. Rather than face issues head on as they arise, they are ducking and waiting for “the courts” to settle it.

It’s easy to see why they would want someone else to wear the jacket for slowing down Trump. While concern for their careers dominates understanding of why Republicans are showing so little willingness to fight, the motivation is more complex. Republicans have convinced themselves that Democrats’ economic and cultural policies would lead to ruin in a different way. They also understand there is no road for a moderate Republican Party at this time. Without an enthusiastic MAGA base, the only other alternative is Democratic control.

Thus, Congressional Republicans see themselves caught between two forces of potential national destruction—Donald Trump’s authoritarianism and the Democrats “woke” impulses. No wonder they are looking for a judicial bailout.

But this deliverance only works if Trump and cronies pay attention to the courts. Despite an abundance of warning signs, Congressional Republicans have been unwilling to contemplate what would happen were Trump to blow through court findings on Constitutional division of powers.

It is not clear whether that is because they can’t imagine a melt-down of democracy happening here or because they believe Trump would not in the end be so extreme.

Under current circumstances, this seems like a high-risk bet.

The Supremes will probably continue delaying and making their opinions as non-confrontational as possible. But as more and more litigation on actions that are clearly unconstitutional winds through the courts, this will become increasingly hard to do. How many court watchers would bet that there won’t be a point when, despite its conservative majority, the Supreme Court says “No”.

At that point, Trump will have to back down…or not. If he does, the dance will continue. If not, what do the Congressional Republicans—or any Congressmen—do? At least for now, polls show even Republicans say Trump could not ignore an order from the Supreme Court. But it is not as if the Court has the power to enforce this. The power to coerce is mostly in the Executive Branch. We have no template for how this will play out, and Trump’s personnel changes in the military worsen the bet.

Congress could then impeach the President—if enough Republicans went along–but once he has decided he’s above the Supreme Court, it’s not clear why he would pay attention to the Legislative Branch. Which, in itself, would create a strong impediment to voting to impeach.

This is why it has been such a mistake for Congressional Republicans to not push back from the beginning. They may have profound differences with Democrats on many things, but they also know that much of what Donald Trump is doing is decidedly beyond the spirit of American democracy. There are clearly steps they could have taken that would have been well short of caving to the Democrats but that would have sent a signal they weren’t going to simply roll over.

Perhaps it is not too late to institute some guardrails. The ability of the Trump team to bring pressure on any individual makes it imperative that for measures to work, a substantial number of party leaders must commit to it. Doing so is not far-fetched; polls show a respectable number of Republicans think Trump is “going too far.” It would probably be more with even modest leadership.

Although it is hard to imagine modest measures would dissuade Donald Trump, any pushback might be enough to create a new dynamic.

The alternative, putting it entirely on the courts, is very risky. Republicans are shirking their Congressional role in the checks and balances that undermine the county’s entire political structure and they know it. If this goes bad, it will be their fault.

And it will certainly not be seen as the one death of the valiant.