Few Republicans in Washington are willing to go head-to-head with President Trump, but there is one band of GOP members willing to stand up to the leader of their own party: lawmakers who have announced their retirements.
While it’s not uncommon for members to feel far more liberated on their way out the door, it has taken on a whole new meaning in the Trump era, where lawmakers are confronted daily by a never-ending stream of White House controversies.
The GOP’s retirement caucus has provided some of the most biting commentary on the president in recent months, with Rep. Ryan Costello (Pa.) — the latest Republican to jump ship from Congress — even saying that his frustrations with the Trump administration helped drive him to the exit.
“I always thought I was freewheeling, but I think I’ve become a little bit more freewheeling,” Costello told The Hill, discussing how his attitude has already shifted in the nearly two weeks since he announced his retirement. “It’s a little bit less stressful.”
There has been a wave of GOP retirements over the last several months, as Republican members are bracing for tough midterm elections this November. Two-dozen House republicans are retiring outright, while four GOP senators have decided to call it quits.
Members have cited a mix of reasons for deciding to leave Congress, from expiring chairmanship terms to family and personal reasons.
But some lawmakers have pointed to another factor: Donald Trump. They say that the unconventional, free-wheeling president has added new headaches to an already demanding job.
“It’s exhausting,” centrist Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), who announced his retirement last fall, told The Hill. “What we’ve gotten out of the administration is all this disruption, and it’s very de-stabilizing.”
Dent has become one of the most vocal and outspoken Trump critics in Congress, always offering up a reliable soundbite to reporters in the Capitol seeking GOP reaction to the latest White House controversy.
Just last week, Dent told the Associated Press that Trump’s “lack of impulse control” is cause for concern, after a week of unpredictable moves by the White House left lawmakers uneasy about key Republican agenda items.
“The spontaneity and lack of impulse control are areas of concern for lots of members on both sides of the aisle,” Dent said. “Disorder, chaos, instability, uncertainty, intemperate statements are not conservative virtues in my opinion.”
Dent first began criticizing Trump during the 2016 presidential election. He conducted polling to see how it might impact his own race, and found that 4 percent of his constituents would vote against Dent for the criticism but that 4 percent would actually support him because of it.
