24 hours that exposed the limits of Donald Trump’s grip on power

24 hours that exposed the limits of Donald Trump’s grip on power

The clearest rebuke to Donald Trump came from Indiana, where Republican state senators rejected a new congressional map the former president had aggressively pushed. Despite months of pressure from Trump, threats of primary challenges, lobbying by US Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson, and even reports of physical threats, a majority of GOP senators voted against the redistricting plan, CNN reported.

The scale of the rejection mattered as much as the vote itself. Twenty-one of the forty Republican senators opposed the proposal, signalling that the costs of defying Trump were no longer seen as prohibitive. The decision may also have wider consequences, effectively undercutting Trump’s national push for mid-decade redistricting to tilt the 2026 House elections in Republicans’ favour.

Indiana was meant to be a key test case for Trump’s aggressive gerrymandering campaign. Without the additional Republican-leaning seats the map would have created, the broader strategy now looks increasingly fragile. While Republicans may still gain marginal advantages in a few states, the hoped-for nationwide reshaping of House districts is beginning to resemble a wash rather than a breakthrough.

The Indiana vote suggested that even Republican lawmakers in safe, pro-Trump states are weighing institutional norms and voter sentiment more heavily than presidential pressure.

The same day brought further bad news for Trump’s efforts to pursue political enemies through the justice system. A federal grand jury in Virginia declined, for the second time, to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James after an earlier indictment was dismissed on procedural grounds.

Such outcomes are exceedingly rare in federal prosecutions, and they echo another recent setback: a grand jury’s rejection of charges against former FBI director James Comey. Together, the failures reinforce the impression that Trump’s legal retaliation campaign is running up against judicial independence rather than bending it.

Trump’s attempts to target Democratic lawmakers who warned service members about potentially illegal orders also faltered. After the Navy delivered a report sought by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth into Senator Mark Kelly, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker made clear there was no basis for punishment.

The Mississippi Republican’s intervention mattered because it came from a senior GOP figure with strong defence credentials, signalling that accusations of sedition and treason were not gaining traction even within Trump’s party.

Indiana was not the only legislative body to push back. In the House of Representatives, 20 Republicans voted to overturn Trump’s executive order stripping federal workers of collective bargaining rights. While the bill is unlikely to become law, such direct opposition to Trump-backed policy remains unusual, particularly from conservatives rather than centrists.

At the same time, Trump’s renewed push to abolish the Senate’s “blue slip” rule stalled almost immediately. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley both dismissed the idea, underlining that institutional rules still hold even when Trump demands change.

Individually, none of these developments strips Trump of influence. But taken together, they point to a growing willingness among institutions and Republican allies to say no. With poll numbers softening and his presidency moving closer to its final stretch, Trump appears less able to rely on sheer pressure to get his way.

For a politician long defined by dominance over his party, the events of a single day offered a revealing snapshot: Trump remains powerful, but his power is no longer absolute.