A Republican from Ohio was busted this week for speaking out against President Donald Trump and his efforts to cut costs during a meeting with local business leaders. The comment led some conservatives to accuse him of betraying them online.
During a Westerville Area Chamber business luncheon, Rep. Troy Balderson (R-OH), a member of the U.S. House since his first election in 2018, expressed his opinion that President Trump’s numerous executive orders were becoming excessive. He discussed constitutional authority, asserting that only Congress possesses the power to control the budget.
“Congress has to decide whether or not the Department of Education goes away,” Balderson asserted. “Not the president, not Elon Musk. Congress decides.”
Balderson said while he respects and shares the desire of Trump and Elon Musk to audit federal agencies and root out waste, he doesn’t believe every order has been lawful. “Congress has to do their work,” he told the business group.
The Zanesville native, a seasoned politician who ascended through the state legislature before securing his seat in a special election, finds the error puzzling.
After running a failed car company, he ran for and won a seat in the state House of Representatives in 2008. Two years later, he was elected to the state Senate.
Now, conservatives are calling into question his judgment and warning that he’s made it easier for someone to run against him in the 2026 primary.
“I guess he is desperate to retire,” one X user wrote in response to the news. Kate Austin, a recognizable MAHA figure on the platform, encouraged others to find a Republican opponent to take on Balderson.
He isn’t the only Republican who has started getting calls from constituents worried about Trump’s plans to cut the federal government by a lot.
A town hall meeting in Roswell, Georgia, on Thursday night was packed with angry voters who were mad at Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) for supporting Trump’s plans.
After being pressed, McCormick replied Trump is “trying to do more with less, that’s reasonable – what’s not reasonable is taking this chainsaw approach.”
“My understanding is when you say you have this many employees that you have to cut, that organization decides who to cut,” McCormick said, triggering groans from those in attendance, according to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal.
McCormick, on the other hand, holds a center-right suburban seat that he lost in 2020 but won back in 2022, even though Trump won the district by 22 points last year.
His strange speech shows how hard it is for House Republicans to deal with criticisms of Trump’s plans when they get back home.
Next month, when Congress has to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running, it will be the first real test of how loyal they are to Trump. President Trump has said that he wants to raise the debt ceiling for two years and keep the tax cuts he made in 2017.
These are both expensive ideas that will put moderate and fiscally conservative Republicans against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has managed to hold firm and remain in the positive exactly one month after taking office and amid a rapid introduction of his agenda.
Trump has recorded at least 50 percent approval ratings in three recent surveys, Newsweek reported, adding that the “surveys suggest that most Americans approve of the job the president is doing, despite other polls indicating that Trump’s favorability ratings have declined since his first few days back in office.”
A SurveyUSA poll of 2,000 adults found that a majority (51 percent) approve of Trump’s job as president, while 45 percent disapprove, giving him a net approval score of +6 points.
When analyzed by region, the results reveal that Trump enjoys stronger approval in rural areas (59 percent) compared to suburban (48 percent) and urban areas (51 percent).