By Lindsay Wise

WASHINGTON -- When the news broke that the Kennedy Center would be renamed to include President Trump, it came as a surprise to the Senate's Republican leader, John Thune of South Dakota -- even though Thune is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board.

"Ah, I just heard about it," Thune said in an interview on Fox News Channel. An act of Congress in 1964 had named the performing arts center to memorialize the slain John F. Kennedy. Thune concluded that Congress would "take a look at it for sure and...see where that goes."

But by the next day, the Kennedy Center had already added Trump's name to the building's facade.

It was just the latest example of how the 119th Congress has mostly been relegated to a sidekick role, deferring to Trump's muscular executive branch as it moves at a breakneck pace to execute the president's agenda -- imposing tariffs, slashing the federal workforce and carrying out military strikes in the Caribbean.

Bolder in his second term, Trump increasingly acts unilaterally to bypass or pre-empt the ponderous legislative process on Capitol Hill. He signed 225 executive orders this year, compared with 61 laws passed by Congress. That is five more executive orders than he signed during all four years of his first term, and more than any other president has signed in the first year of a term since Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941. Back in 2017, Trump signed 55 executive orders and 96 laws.

A White House spokeswoman said Trump has taken "powerful executive actions" and signed a "massive piece of legislation" to deliver on his agenda despite obstruction from Democrats in Congress.

The situation has made some Republican lawmakers uneasy. In September, after the Trump administration announced plans to rescind $4.9 billion in foreign aid without congressional approval, Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) warned that members of Congress needed to do more to stand up for their institution.

"I do have some pause when some of my colleagues don't recognize the institutional threat that that represents," said Tillis, who is retiring. "We've got to fight back and not make it look like it's some sort of freaking loyalty pledge."

Other Republicans enthusiastically cheer on the president, saying that GOP majorities in Congress were elected to help deliver on Trump's campaign promises as expeditiously as possible, and that is exactly what they are doing.

In his final press conference of 2025, Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said it had been a "marquee year" and touted the president's big tax-and-spending bill, which Republican majorities in the House and Senate passed in July, in narrow, party-line votes.

Johnson called it "the most significant piece of legislation that Congress has considered in my lifetime" and promised Americans would soon start to feel the benefits.

But after that signature legislative win, Congress floundered. Lawmakers spent a record 43 days mired in a government shutdown this fall. For nearly two months, Johnson kept his members out of Washington to try to pressure Democrats to end the shutdown. When the House finally returned, lawmakers spent the first week trapped in a cycle of censure votes as members sought to punish each other for alleged misconduct rather than legislate.

A frustrated Rep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.), angry that Congress hadn't yet passed a congressional stock-trading ban despite bipartisan support, unloaded in front of TV cameras in November.

"You know, everybody talks about this place being a dadgum swamp," Burchett said. "A swamp is something cool God created. It filters water, animal life lives and flourishes around it. This is a sewer, this was created by man, and it needs to stop."

On Thursday, Congress limped out of Washington for the holidays without deals to extend expiring healthcare subsidies or fully fund the government before another lapse set for 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 31.

At the White House, top advisers have joked about ruling Congress with an "iron fist." Steve Bannon, a Trump ally, dubbed Congress the "Duma," after the Russian assembly that mostly serves as a rubber stamp. In October, Trump himself quipped that Republicans "don't need to pass any more bills," since they "got everything" in the tax law.

When a reporter asked the president last week if he needed to seek approval from Congress before launching any land attacks on drug cartels in Venezuela, the president was dismissive.

"I don't have to tell them -- it's been proven," Trump said.

The Constitution grants Congress the authority to set spending levels, levy tariffs and declare war. Congressional Democrats have repeatedly forced votes this year to try to claw back control over tariffs and war powers, but only a handful of Republicans have broken ranks to vote with them.

One of those Republicans is Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a libertarian who has voted with Democrats multiple times to overturn Trump's tariffs and block military action in Venezuela.

Paul said other Republicans might be uncomfortable with policies such as Trump's tariffs, but they are unwilling to vote against the president. The reason, he said, is "fear."

The political risks are profound. Paul's friend and fellow libertarian, Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.), is facing a Trump-supported primary challenger after joining with Democrats to force a vote on a bill requiring the Justice Department to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender.

With Congress at a low ebb of its power and political polarization on the rise, more lawmakers are giving up.

In the House, 19 Democrats and 25 Republicans have decided not to seek re-election next year, while in the Senate five Republicans and four Democrats are throwing in the towel.

Some are leaving to run for higher office, or like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), because they are octogenarians who are at the end of decadeslong careers. But for others, including 51-year-old Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), the decision to bail was driven by political disillusionment and security concerns.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R., Wash.) said his choice to retire was personal and not because of frustrations with the legislative process, which he said has always been difficult.

Newhouse is one of only two remaining Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump for inciting insurrection in 2021. As he prepares to leave Congress behind, he said he worries about the institution ceding its constitutional authority and powers to the executive branch -- not just in the past year under the Trump administration but over the past several decades.

"It seems to be a trend," Newhouse said. "I think it's dangerous."

Write to Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 24, 2025 21:00 ET (02:00 GMT)

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