Republicans Watch in Helpless Disbelief
as Trump Puts Hold on Texas at Big Risk

Capitol Inside
April 2, 2026

The Republican monopoly in Texas could be in the twilight stages with President Donald Trump's increasingly erratic behavior and bombastic rhetoric giving Americans multiple new reasons every day to vote for Democrats this fall. Trump was in vintage form on Thursday - from a personal attack on legendary American musician Bruce Springsteen to the firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi in a move that put the Epstein files back in the the spotlight.

But the Republicans on the fall ballot here - from Governor Greg Abbott on down - may have felt their r hold on the nation's second largest state slipping away after Trump's pitch the day before for states to pay the tab for entitlement programs that depend on federal funding so he can have more to spend on war

"We can't take care of day care," the president said in a private lunch ion several hours before a speech to the nation. "We're a big country. We're fighting wars. It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these things."

Abbott and other GOP candidates on the Texas ballot had new cause to fear their fates with the posting of a video by Business Insider that captured the remarks on the sudden shift in presidential priorities after Trump had vowed as a candidate in 2024 to protect the federal programs on which children, disabled Americans and senior citizens depend. The White House reposted the video before deleting in the face of a monstrous backlash on the radical nature of his comments.

The dumping of health and social services on the states would blow a hole of $60 billion or more in the Texas two-year budget. The Texas Legislature would find it politically impossible to cut spending enough to absorb such a hit - and its members would be forced to a record tax increase to bridge the gap as a consequence.

Trump's dramatic and unexpected reverse on essential services came during the lunch event at the White House where the president's spiritual adviser, Paula White, likened his plight to the struggles that Jesus Christ of Nazareth encountered as an adult. “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused," White told Trump. "It's a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. Because of his resurrection, you rose up.”

The Trump employee's Jesus analogy went viral on social media about the same time that a groundswell appeared to bubble up on James Talarico as a presidential contender in two years if he flips the seat that U.S. Senate John Cornyn is seeking again at the polls this year. Talarico, a Presbyterian minister, has portrayed himself as someone who tries to live his life by the examples Jesus set based on teachings in the Bible. GOP partisans have tried to discredit Talarico on the subject of faith - depicting the state representative from Austin as an anti-Christ or prophet of the devil in response to his stinging criticism of Christian nationalism in the political arena on Trump's watch.

But the Texas Democrats' prayers will come true if Attorney General Ken Paxton ousts Cornyn in a runoff late next month - and Trump has emerged as their number one all-time ally in a bid to take back the Lone Star State after two dozen years of GOP rule.

Trump got Thursday under way by offending countless voters across the political spectrum with a nasty Truth Social post on Springsteen - the songwriting rocker who's known to fans around the world as the Boss. Trump called Springsteen "a bad, and very boring, singer" who "looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon" in the post.

Trump said Springsteen "has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS." Tagging the famous artist as "a total loser who spews hate" against a president who's raised the United States from the grave. Trump got in a final shot before he went to bed with a Truth Social post tonight. "Is Bruce Springsteen going to sue his plastic surgeon?"

Springsteen clearly hit a nerve when he announced his plans last month for a new tour that's designed to call out Trump authoritarian overeach.

Trump also doubled down late Thursday night with his push for a massive increase in the budget for the Pentagon - saying in a separate Truth Social post that he needed a 50 percent increase in spending on the military from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion - a stark contrast to his pledge as a candidate to keep the U.S. out of war. Trump didn't mention the dramatic cuts in social services that he envisions as the key to funding the massive military buildup.

But the Republicans on the ballot here this fall would have plenty of opportunity to weigh in on these development after growing uncharacteristically quiet on a president who's doing more each day to send their anxiety soaring in the midst of fear on a blue wave in November that could surpass the one that crashed here in 2018 seem tame at the rate Trump is going.

more to come ....