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Trump’s grip on party he remade weakens after string of setbacks

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2 months ago

November 23, 2025

President Donald Trump’s power to bend a compliant Republican Congress to his will has stalled amid a series of political setbacks that threaten to fracture the party heading into next year’s pivotal midterm elections.

In the last week, Trump capitulated to fellow Republicans’ demands for the release of the files of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein; saw his $2,000 stimulus check proposal receive a chilly reception on Capitol Hill; and prompted an intra-party debate over midterm campaign priorities with his broader effort to reclaim the affordability mantle.

And late Friday, he lost one of his once-most stalwart allies, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. An instigator of the push to release the Epstein files, Greene announced she would resign from Congress in January as the president and the congresswoman sparred online. That will at least temporarily shrink the Republicans’ already-tiny majority.

The Republican Party is increasingly at war with itself, which doesn’t bode well for its effort to prevent another election-day wipeout like it experienced earlier this month in off-year elections in New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and California.

Victory With a Cost

Republicans ostensibly won the government shutdown fight, but they did so by blocking an extension of broadly popular tax credits under the Affordable Care Act. Millions of Americans now face spiking health care premiums, and the president’s party is splintered over how to respond.

Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who has frequently sparred with Trump over Epstein and other matters, this week shrugged off the president’s efforts to unseat him in his safely Republican Kentucky district.

“I’m winning. He’s losing,” Massie said.

Even the party’s typically mild-mannered congressional leaders — House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — are at odds, with Thune more willing to buck Trump.

Thune first refused to obey Trump’s repeated demands to end the shutdown by changing Senate rules. The two congressional leaders then sparred over the handling of the Epstein legislation. That quickly morphed into another battle over a provision tucked into legislation that stands to enrich a group of GOP senators. Now, they’re playing pass the buck on Russia sanctions legislation.

A diminished Trump and a splintered party hurt prospects for furthering the president’s legislative agenda around a core issue in the upcoming elections: the state of the US economy.

Trump has returned from the brink of defeat before, most famously when he left Washington in disgrace in 2021 following his election loss and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, only to return victorious in 2024.

Trump has repeatedly signaled his own worries about the party’s messaging ahead of the 2026 elections, where Democrats aim to retake at least the House. That would give the party shared control of the nation’s purse strings as well as subpoena power and a reliable check on Trump.

“Affordable should be our word, not theirs,” Trump said on Monday, referring to the Democratic victories in November where they won by focusing on family-budget issues.

‘Affordability’ Messaging

Only 15% of voters in a Fox News poll said Trump’s policies were helping the economy, and 76% viewed the economy negatively, with Trump’s approval rating slumping to 41% — a low for the year in that poll.

Vice President JD Vance appealed to voters for patience and predicted an economic boom is coming. “As much progress as we’ve made, it’s going to take a little time for Americans to feel that,” he said at a Breitbart News event on Thursday.

Trump even backed off some tariffs, notably on agricultural products like bananas and coffee from Brazil, a tacit acknowledgment that his favorite policy tool also can raise consumer costs.

Johnson, whose own fortunes are tied to Trump’s, has increasingly struggled to maintain control of his narrow majority. Both he and Trump were run over this week on the Epstein legislation, flip-flopping in the face of certain defeat after fighting the bill for months.

Thune also refused Johnson’s pleas to amend the bill to allow the Justice Department to redact information in the files. The Senate agreed to pass the bill by unanimous consent even before receiving it — a sign of just how toxic the Epstein matter has become.

Johnson also said he’s “very angry” that Thune had inserted a provision into the bill ending the shutdown that could net a group of Republican senators millions from taxpayers in lawsuits over the seizure of their phone records during the Biden administration.

The provision is already being used by Democrats to attack vulnerable Republicans running for reelection, like Senator Susan Collins of Maine.

Meanwhile, the party’s legislative agenda has largely stalled since July, thanks in part to the shutdown. But that seven-week break masked deep splits among Republicans that are now surfacing.

They do not yet have a consensus on how to deal with spending bills needed to avoid another shutdown at the end of January. They are just now trying to cobble together a Republican health-care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act — something that has eluded the GOP for 15 years. Trump said Friday he wants that done by Jan. 30.

Many of the most endangered Republicans want to extend the existing ACA subsidies for at least another year lest they be blamed for soaring premiums for tens of millions of Americans, but Trump has vowed to oppose any such measure.

Trump’s faltering clout could be seen when he started touting $2,000 checks to send to Americans, which he claimed would be paid for by tariff revenue. Already, enough Senate Republicans have told Bloomberg they oppose it to kill the measure.

“I think it would be crazy to send money to people while we have a deficit,” Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul said this week.

Redistricting Backfires

Trump’s push to have Republican states gerrymander their congressional districts to lock in a Republican House majority has backfired, as well, with Democrats potentially set to net seats out of the map-drawing war he started. Indiana Republicans ignored Trump’s public threats and declined to redraw their maps; the Texas GOP’s partisan map is at risk in federal court and Trump’s moves have spurred Democratic states like California to redraw their maps.

Trump himself has also started to lash out, telling reporters he had yelled himself hoarse to staffers about trade issues. He quipped he would fire Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent if the Federal Reserve didn’t cut interest rates faster.

He snapped at reporters for questioning his position on the Epstein files, for asking about his family’s business relationships with Saudi Arabia and about the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi as he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office.

Trump also called for the arrest and potentially the death penalty for a group of Democratic lawmakers who urged the military and intelligence community not to follow illegal orders. That earned him a mild rebuke from Republicans like Thune, who avoided the issue before finally saying he disagreed with Trump’s comments.

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Published

22 minutes ago

January 21, 2026

Jace Porter

Nestled in the heart of Bangkok’s Chinatown, the Ong Ang Canal served as a vital trade artery in the 18th century. Over time, it became heavily polluted, and even earned a reputation as the city’s dirtiest canal.

Last month, as part of a broader government effort to revitalize the canal, Siam Cement Group (SCG), Thailand’s oldest cement firm, unveiled the country’s first 3D-printed pedestrian bridge across its waters.

The bridge is part of SCG’s drive to bring new construction materials to Southeast Asia, Surachai Nimlaor, who helms its operations in cement and green solutions, tells Fortune in a Jan. 20 interview.

The company first started applying 3D printing tech to construction in the early 2020s, including the 2023 construction of the world’s first 3D printed medical center in Saraburi, Thailand.

“When we use 3D printing, we can shorten construction time and create buildings with unique shapes that conventional builders may not be able to achieve,” says Nimlaor.

The process involves creating a digital model, slicing it for the 3D printer, and then allowing the printer’s robotic arms to set down concrete, layer-by-layer, to form structures. By removing the need for traditional molds or formwork, it enables freeform architecture which includes sculptural curves and undulating walls. SCG’s 3D printed medical center, for instance, has fluid facades that would be difficult to execute with conventional cast concrete.

Courtesy of Siam Cement Group

This technology could be especially valuable for Thailand, where an aging population and a workforce wary of construction jobs is shrinking the sector’s pool of available workers. Nimlaor explains that the industry has been forced to turn to foreign workers from neighboring countries like Cambodia and Myanmar. (According to 2025 data from Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, there are over 1.2 million Cambodian workers in Thailand, many of whom are employed in construction.)

Still, 3D printed buildings are often only one or two storeys tall, Nimlaor admits, as taller buildings introduce “material constraints around structural loads and stability.”

Thailand’s first cement firm

SCG was founded in 1913 to build Bangkok’s first cement plant, under the orders of then-King Rama VI. In the century that followed, the company expanded to focus on three core businesses: cement and building materials, chemicals, and packaging.

Today, SCG is Thailand’s largest building materials company, with a 2024 revenue of $14.5 billion. It ranks No. 21 in Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500 list, which sorts the region’s largest companies by revenue. SCG has also expanded to other parts of Southeast Asia, including packaging businesses in Malaysia and a petrochemical plant in Vietnam.

Greening the construction industry

Beyond 3D printing, SCG is also developing low-carbon cement, tackling an industry that accounts for roughly 8% of global carbon emissions, according to the World Economic Forum.

SCG is trying to formulate cement produced using biomass, like wood. This cuts the carbon emissions from the production process by as much as 20% per ton, Nimlaor claims. SCG now exports its low-carbon cement to the U.S. and Australia, where developers now prefer materials that meet ESG standards.

“ESG has become a very strong driver in the global market,” he explains. “Many companies now have clear carbon-reduction targets and sustainability commitments.”

SCG hopes to launch the third-generation of its low-carbon cement, which would cut carbon emissions from production by up to 40%, but Nimlaor has hopes that they can eventually cut emissions by up to 90%.

Looking forward, SCG hopes to continue pushing the boundaries in creating greener construction materials. “Sustainability and business growth must go together,” he concludes.

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Business

Fortune Article | Fortune

Published

53 minutes ago

January 21, 2026

Jace Porter

Bitcoin is one of the world’s most battle-tested pieces of software. Launched in early 2009, the network has run continuously without being hacked, and today feels more secure than ever. There is, however, a threat on the medium-term horizon that threatens not only Bitcoin but every other type of software that relies on current encryption technology. That threat is quantum computing and, on Wednesday, Coinbase announced it has created a board of outside experts to prepare for its eventual arrival.

The board includes academics from Stanford, Harvard, and the University of California with specialties in fields like computer science, cryptography and fintech. Formally known as the Coinbase Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, it is also composed of experts in blockchain and security from the Ethereum Foundation, the DeFi platform EigenLayer and from Coinbase itself.

In an interview with Fortune, Coinbase Chief Information Security Officer Jeff Lunglhofer explained how the arrival of quantum computing could defeat current encryption mechanisms, including the ones employed to protect the wallets and private keys held by Bitcoin owners.

“In simple terms, modern cryptography relies on hard math problems that would take thousands of years for a modern computer to solve,” he said. “But when we have a million times the horsepower [with quantum computing], that will provide the computation power to solve them.”

While the security threat of quantum computing is real, it is unlikely to be an urgent issue for at least a decade, according to Lunglhofer. His view is consistent with other experts who note that, while companies like Google and IBM have been building quantum computers for years, the current generation of these machines can only operate at a small scale and are not close to being able to crack the algorithms that protect Bitcoin and other networks.

The purpose of the new Advisory Board, says Lunglhofer, is to explore the coming impact of quantum computing in a “non-hype based way.” This will include promoting efforts by the blockchain industry, which are already underway, to update Bitcoin and other networks so that they are resistant to quantum-based attacks.

Currently, the Bitcoin network secures wallets by means of private keys, which are long strings of random numbers and letters that are visible to their owners, but that can only be guessed by means of an impossibly long series of trial-and-error attempts. When the quantum computing era arrives, it will be possible to guess a private key using trial-and-error. In response, Lunglhofer says, blockchain experts anticipate that Bitcoin and other networks will respond by creating larger keys and, at the same time, introducing “noise” to make the location of the key harder to detect in the first place.

All of this will require blockchain networks to introduce and deploy these defensive upgrades, a process that is likely to take years. In the interim, the new Advisory Board will begin publishing research papers and issuing position statements to help the crypto industry prepare for the arrival of quantum computing. The group plans to publish its first paper, which will focus on quantum’s impact on the consensus and transaction layers of blockchain, in the next month or two.

“Quantum computing is both a technological opportunity and a security challenge. By bringing together the foremost experts in the world, Coinbase is ensuring that the blockchain ecosystem is prepared, not just reactive,” said Yehuda Lindell, Head of Cryptography at Coinbase, in a statement.

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Business

The Walmart C-suite reshuffle shows how the retailer sees itself now: as a tech company

Published

1 hour ago

January 21, 2026

Jace Porter

When Walmart last week announced that David Guggina, its U.S. e-commerce chief executive, would become CEO of its nearly $500 billion U.S. division, one thing stood out in his résumé: Unlike his predecessors, Guggina has no experience running stores and has never held a merchandising role, at Walmart or elsewhere. These are two classic job requirements in retail. Incoming Walmart CEO John Furner, for example, who has run U.S. operations since 2019, began his Walmart career as an hourly associate in 1993, and held roles in merchandising, operations, and sourcing.

But there’s another realm of experience that Guggina does have in spades: e-commerce, automation, and supply chain. And by putting him atop the division that generates 69% of company revenue, Walmart is signaling that it now sees itself as a tech company, as well as a retailer. Guggina has spent eight years at Walmart, after nine years at arch-rival Amazon.com. In its announcement, Walmart touted Guggina’s work in building delivery capabilities to serve 95% of U.S. households in under three hours, and said his appointment “positions him to continue to drive our goal of being America’s favorite place to shop.”

In the last decade, after years of fits and starts, Walmart has emerged as a formidable e-commerce player, with U.S. digital sales of almost $100 billion a year—still far behind Amazon, but well ahead of any other U.S. retailer. In its most recent quarter, Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce rose 27%. That has been the result of billions in investments to integrate Walmart’s 4,600 stores with its e-commerce operations. This work has helped ensure faster shipping while also integrating technology more effectively into things like inventory management, supply chain, and in-store customer service. Guggina was instrumental in those achievements, working under Furner, who will become Walmart Inc’s new CEO next week.

“This is a unique moment in retail,” Guggina said in a LinkedIn post about his appointment. “AI is changing how people shop, and customer expectations are higher than ever. But no one is more prepared to usher in the next era of retail.”

The timing of Guggina’s promotion was fitting: It came soon after Walmart moved its shares from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq exchange, where tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft list their shares. In December, Walmart said the move underscores its “technology-forward approach.”

Guggina isn’t the only techy whose star is rising at Walmart. The company also appointed Seth Dallaire chief growth officer for Walmart U.S., charging him with pushing Walmart U.S. further beyond traditional retail into tech-heavy lines of business—including its booming advertising, media, and online marketplace ventures. Dallaire is a veteran of Instacart and Amazon.

Walmart is considered by analysts to be well ahead of other retailers in AI-assisted shopping. In October, it announced a partnership with OpenAI to allow shoppers to browse and buy Walmart products directly inside ChatGPT, using a built-in instant checkout feature. Last week, Walmart and Google announced their own shopping tool. Also last week, Walmart’s executive vice president for AI acceleration, product and design, Daniel Danker, suggested at a conference that the company was developing auto-ordering for the replenishment of staples.

Bolstering Walmart’s tech and AI aura has had the additional benefit of lifting the company’s stock: In the last year, Walmart shares have risen 27%, double the S&P 500’s growth and trouncing Amazon’s 1% increase.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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