Trump’s Argentine bailout stokes growing dissent among Maga faithful

Flanked by attorney general Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel, the US president urged his chief law enforcement officers to “look into” a new list of political enemies, the latest targets in a campaign of retribution for what he dubbed “the worst weaponisation of a political opponent in the history of the world”.

At around the same time on Wednesday, a group of anxious Senate Republicans met Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, to discuss the impact of the president’s trade war with China. The Republicans demanded to know why the White House had agreed a $40bn bailout for Argentina last week, when US farmers are struggling with the fallout from Trump’s flagship tariff policy and a standoff with Beijing.

The parallel meetings underscored a disconnect between the White House and Republicans in Congress and the first hairline cracks of dissent emerging in Trump’s total control of his party.

With the government shutdown grinding into a third week, members of Congress returned to their constituencies to face mounting anxiety among voters at the state of the US economy, the job market and the cost of living. As the 2026 midterms heave into view, Republicans facing re-election next year are quietly pleading with the White House to refocus on the kitchen-table issues that Trump was elected to fix.

“People are really starting to feel the effects of these tariffs, and members of Congress are being flooded with emails and calls,” one Republican strategist said. “That’s why a few members are starting to speak up – but are you really ready to take the gloves off?”

The most vocal criticism has come from an unexpected quarter. Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is a staunch Trump loyalist and Maga diehard but has broken with the president and her party, accusing Republicans of neglecting the voters who put them back in power.

In a series of scorched-earth interviews, Greene attacked Trump’s tariffs and the sweeping crackdown on immigration that, she said, was hurting vital sectors of the economy.

“We have a labour force in America, across many industries, that has been built on illegal labour. That’s a fact that also cannot be ignored,” Greene said on a podcast with comedian Tim Dillon. She urged a “smarter plan than just rounding up every single person and deporting them”.

Going further, shesaid that the Trump administration had been blown off course by pandering to its “crypto donors” and ignoring the needs of ordinary Americans.

“Those are the ones that voted for not only the president but every single Republican, gave us power,” she added. “I don’t think those people are being served.”

To the fury of many in her party, Greene has hit out at Republicans over the ongoing shutdown, accusing the GOP of “doing nothing” about the rising cost of food and healthcare. Effectively aligning with the Democrats, s he warned that allowing healthcare subsidies to expire will “crush” the finances of working families.

Greene’s attacks contrast with Trump’s insistence that Americans are enjoying “virtually no inflation” and the “best economy we’ve ever had”. The president has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that his tariffs have already secured “$18tn” in investment to the US.

Recent opinion polls suggest that voters do not share Trump’s rosy outlook. His approval rating has seen a bump since the ceasefire in Gaza, but an AP-Norc poll taken just before the Middle East deal was struck put his support at 37%. Only 36% approved of the president’s handling of the economy, while 62% disapproved. Nearly 70% said the country was heading in the wrong direction.

Few Republicans are as bold as Greene but she is not alone in voicing concerns that Trump’s crackdown on opponents, sending US troops into American cities on the pretext of fighting crime, is leading the country down a dangerous path.

Kevin Stitt, the Republican governor of Oklahoma, criticised the president’s move to deploy the Texas National Guard on the streets of Chicago, calling it a violation of “states’ rights”. Stitt told the New York Times that Republicans would rightly “lose their mind” if Democrats “sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration”.

Caught between the demands from the White House and their voters, however, most Republicans have kept any misgivings to themselves. House Republicans have twice voted en masse to cede congressional power over tariffs to the White House, with only a handful of rebels each time.

On Capitol Hill last week, there was widespread dismay at the massive bailout for Javier Milei’s right-wing government in Argentina amid growing economic uncertainty at home. But few are willing to test the patience of a president bent on revenge who remains the supreme Republican kingmaker and delivered an emphatic election victory last year. Having traded away their influence on government policy, few are brave enough to ask for it back.

“There’s a real fear of retribution,” one former Trump adviser said. “It’s a pattern with the president if you don’t fall in line. It’s 100% or nothing with this administration.”

Maga hardliners have pushed back on the groundswell of criticism. Far-right social media star Laura Loomer, who has waged a long-running feud with Greene, lashed out at “ingrate Republicans” who latched on to Trump to get elected and now “think they don’t need him any more”.

She was appalled, however, at the Trump administration’s recent decision to allow Qatar to open an air force facility at a US base in Idaho amid deepening military ties with the Gulf Arab state. Qatar, which hosts the political leadership of Hamas, served as chief negotiator in ceasefire talks between the Palestinian terror group and Israel. Loomer, a self-proclaimed “proud Islamophobe”, warned that “terror-financing Muslims” would exploit this foothold on US soil “so they can murder Americans”.

Photograph by by Elijah Nouvelage / AFP