GOP reckons with Trump’s ICE blunders: ‘Defeat out of the jaws of victory’

President Donald Trump’s deportation crackdown has even Republicans worried that the American people are souring on combating illegal immigration, an issue that propelled the party to control Congress and the White House in 2024.

Across the Right, there are Republicans who see the chaotic images of federal agents in Minnesota clashing with protesters and engaging in deadly shootings are eroding the advantage they once held on immigration. These Republicans hold those views even as they lay blame on left-wing “agitators” for the unrest.

“Way more than a bit of a fumble,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), a fiscal hawk who is among the most conservative Senate members, told the Washington Examiner of the administration’s tactics. “This is pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory.”

Sen. Thom