Mitt Romney Successor Says He Will Not Be ‘Rubber Stamp’ for Trump

When Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) decided to retire, MAGA applauded very loudly.

Well, Romney’s replacement, Senator-elect John Curtis (R-UT), may wind up being Romney 2.0 as far as Donald Trump is concerned.

The Majority

Republicans took back the Senate during the 2024 election, but it was not by an overwhelming majority.

Republicans now have 53 seats, which gives them only three votes to spare on any piece of legislation that does not require 60 votes, which will be most budgetary legislation (reconciliation can force the legislation through).

When Senator Mitt Romney retired, everyone was hopeful his replacement would offer less resistance to Donald Trump, but that does not appear to be the case.

Senator-elect Curtis just revealed that he will not be willing to pass legislation through because Trump wants it passed.

Not a Rubber Stamp

Curtis was interviewed by ABC News’ “This Week.”

During the interview, he stated, “It’s very important to me that President Trump is successful. I want to see him wildly successful, and I’ll be supportive of him when he’s talking about inflation and the economy and everything like that.

“But that doesn’t mean there won’t be moments when I disagree with him. I do have my own mind, and I’m not a rubber stamp. My stamp is the stamp of the state of Utah.”

I agree with Curtis that he should not just rubber stamp every piece of legislation, but I disagree with his reasoning. He is there to represent his constituents, not his opinion. So if the Senate has legislation that is clearly within Trump’s campaign platform, which voters overwhelmingly supported, Curtis needs to get that stamp out.

Will Be Difficult

Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), a Biden loyalist, was also doing the media circuit over the weekend, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Coons believes that Trump is going to have a very difficult time getting his agenda passed because he is doing to need Democrats to get much of his legislation passed, stating, “I think we’re in for some really rough sailing, and it’s going to be difficult for them to pass much of President-elect Trump’s ambitious agenda on straight party-line votes. Democrats will have to be in the mix.”

I agree with Coons, and was fairly transparent during the election that I thought Trump was overpromising, especially in his promises on taxes. Dems will never give Trump the seven votes he needs in the Senate, which will have the GOP backed into a corner, or they can throw Democrats a bone to get legislation passed.

The only way Trump will be able to do this is if he starts passing omnibus legislation, where he can attach policies to budget legislation. However, the House has stated time and again that it wants to eliminate omnibus legislation and only pass single-issue legislation. So, if they start hammering through omnibus bills via reconciliation, Trump may get what he wants, but he makes every House member look like a hypocrite or an outright liar, likely costing the GOP seats in the next two elections.