In 1805-06, Republican Rep. John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, broke with President Thomas Jefferson in large part over foreign policy. In a political sense, it represented the first major setback of Jefferson’s two-term administration.
“Randolph’s revolt spread confusion and dismay in Washington. For four years, in the service of the administration, he had terrorized the House with his bludgeoning talents, his javelin-like wit, and his loss to the administration could not be easily repaired,” Jefferson biographer Merrill D. Peterson wrote in “Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation” (1970).
In other words, let us not exaggerate the novelty of the situation when President Donald Trump, in the midst of a Senate battle over a Democrat-sponsored resolution designed to prevent him from imposing tariffs on Canada, takes
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