David A. Graham, A Stubbornly Naive Group of GOP Senators, The Atlantic, 19 August 2026.
The conservative blindness is holding out when everyone else can see the terrible wrongness.
A Stubbornly Naive Group of GOP Senators
A small caucus of non-MAGA Republicans keeps falling for the president’s flimsy promises.
August 19, 2026, 5:11 PM ET
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For many observers of American politics, the past few years have been disillusioning, knocking down hopeful beliefs about what the people of the United States will support or tolerate. Even some of Donald Trump’s backers have become disaffected.
Yet somehow, a small caucus of non-MAGA Republican senators has managed to remain preciously naive about the president and the administration he runs. No matter how many times Trump or his aides show who they are and how they operate, these senators seem flabbergasted and saddened.
No case illustrates the ease with which they are fooled like the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general. Blanche was confirmed last week on a 50–49 vote, but only after GOP Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn extracted a written assurance from Blanche that a $1.8 billion fund for payouts to Trump allies would not proceed. Senator Bill Cassidy also wavered, but said he was persuaded by the vow. (All three men will leave the Senate at the end of this term: Tillis is retiring, and Cornyn and Cassidy lost primaries to Trump-backed challengers.)
This weekend, Blanche was interviewed on Meet the Press. Kristen Welker asked whether he could “pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House.” Blanche refused—likely an honest answer, given his demonstrated willingness to follow Trump’s lead, but one that should worry anyone who believes in the rule of law; witness Trump’s repeated demands for political prosecutions, irrespective of evidence. Yet Blanche insisted to Welker that Trump “will never ask me to do something unethical or illegal. He never has. He never will.”
That might reassure someone whose political memory stretches back only as far as early August. But anyone old enough to remember the slush fund, or Blanche’s starring role in negotiating it (as laid out by Federal Judge Kathleen Williams in May), would know that Trump not only has asked Blanche to do something unethical, but that Blanche complied. In order to vote to confirm, Cornyn, Tillis, and Cassidy had to convince themselves first that Blanche’s conduct in that case is not indicative of his basic moral compass; and second that he would be more accountable once permanently confirmed by the Senate than he was when he still had to win over their votes. If Trump finds or attempts to find some way to resuscitate the slush fund—as some experts believe he might—many people will be dismayed, but only this trio of guileless senators will be shocked.
Cassidy’s willingness to vote for a Trump yes-man is all the more puzzling because he voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, and because the president led the charge to defeat him in a primary. (The impeachment vote was Trump’s main reason for targeting him.) But Cassidy has a long record of credulity. As my colleague Nicholas Florko has reported, Cassidy—a physician—cast a deciding vote to confirm Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but only after the nominee made promises about preserving the existing vaccination regime, a pledge he promptly broke. On ABC’s The Week this past Sunday, Cassidy said “it’s pretty evident” that Kennedy’s vow was a lie. And on CNN’s State of the Union, he called the White House’s latest vaccine move, attempting to unbundle the measles, mumps, and rubella injection, “a crazy, stupid thing.” Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, another doctor, voted for Kennedy and has since been upset about the administration’s anti-vaccine steps. Who could have foreseen that the prominent vaccine skeptic would undermine federal vaccination policy?
Two other moderate Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voted against Blanche’s confirmation, issuing statements that noted the politicization of the Justice Department under his watch as acting attorney general. But they are not always so clear-eyed. Murkowski delivered one of 2025’s most unintentionally hilarious statements when she cast a crucial vote to pass Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act through the Senate. “My sincere hope is that this is not the final product,” Murkowski said in a statement. “This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President’s desk. We need to work together to get this right.” Naturally, that didn’t happen; the mystery is why she thought the White House, or Mike Johnson’s House, would improve the bill once she’d surrendered her leverage.
Collins, however, is the dean of the credulous caucus. The Mainer, who faces a tough reelection campaign this fall, is perpetually concerned about Trump-administration actions, but seldom ready to actually use her power. Collins is a rare pro-abortion-rights Republican who previously said she wouldn’t support any Supreme Court nominee who opposed Roe v. Wade. In 2018, she voted to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who said Roe was “settled as precedent.” When Kavanaugh was part of the majority that voted to overturn Roe in 2022, Collins lamented the ruling but now says she didn’t regret her vote for Kavanaugh and would do it again. More recently, Collins helped pass a huge appropriation for ICE with few strings attached, then expressed dismay at the use of the funds to buy “shock gloves” for agents. Even her vote against Blanche was symbolic, because he had enough votes to be confirmed without her.
One could easily write these senators off as cynical, but if they’re acting for political gain, it’s not working well: Cassidy’s and Cornyn’s mild deviations from Trump led to the end of their careers; Tillis’s retirement helped him avoid what might have been a stiff primary challenge. Many of their concerns appear earnest. Perhaps they really just are that gullible, unable to adapt to a Trump age that is leaving them behind. In defending his Blanche vote, Cassidy shrugged off attacks: “I’ll be criticized for this vote. What’s new?” But voters might reasonably expect that their elected officials are savvier about the world than a babe in the woods.
Featured Image: 2025-08-12-Brisbane-Governance-is-Stupid.
Neville Buch
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