Republican rep. warns the GOP is following Trump 'off a cliff'

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Jersey, U.S., June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

One moderate Republican member of the House of Representatives is arguing that the GOP needs to stake out its own identity outside of being a rubber stamp for President Donald Trump.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) defended his more frequent public opposition to Trump's agenda as simply "being on the right side" of history. A retired brigadier general in the Air Force, Bacon is likely to decide soon whether to run for a sixth term in Congress or retire when his current term expires.

"I’d like to fight for the soul of our party," Bacon told the Times. "I don’t want to be the guy who follows the flute player off the cliff. I think that’s what’s going on right now."

Bacon has a mixed record of backing GOP priorities during Trump's second term. While he voted in favor of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that cuts Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars while extending tax cuts that primarily benefit the richest Americans, the Nebraska Republican has opposed the bill renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Trump's preferred name for the body of water. And he's publicly called on Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for sharing highly sensitive information on an unsecured text messaging app. And he's also criticized the administration for preventing Afghans who helped U.S. forces in its war with Taliban, saying it was not a "morally right decision."

While some Republicans like former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinziner (R-Ill.) have sacrificed their political careers to vociferously oppose Trump, Bacon said he's choosing a slightly different route. He noted that he still supports some of Trump's policies, and that he prefers "fixing things" to "voting no."

“You can’t be anti-everything,” Bacon said. “I like what the president has done on the border, so I have no problem with that.”

According to the Times, House Republican leadership has repeatedly asked Bacon to — as he put it — "stop kicking President Trump in the nuts." The Omaha-area representative said he'll "only do it when I think it's needed."

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