Chip Roy Is the Principled Leader Donald Trump Should Want to Be
Sometimes, the test of leadership lies in being willing to stand up for one’s principles, regardless of the consequences. With the federal government $36 trillion in debt—and counting—we arrived at that point a long time ago. Unfortunately, most of Washington has yet to figure that fact out.
Into that dynamic came the now-infamous 1,547-page continuing resolution. The controversy surrounding the bill has demonstrated which elected leaders will, to use the biblical metaphor, sound a certain trumpet in battle. The results suggest the possibilities and the limitations of the coming four years.
Trump at His Best—And His Worst
The past few days have shown both the benefits and the potential pitfalls of Donald Trump as a politician. On the one hand, he proved remarkably adept at responding to vocal criticism from the conservative base, in ways that traditional members of the “Washington Swamp” would not. If confronted with the type of grumbling and outrage that marked the reaction to the bill’s release, prior Republican leaders—say, Mitt Romney or George W. Bush—would likely have shrugged their shoulders and plowed ahead regardless.
On the other hand, one could have seen this disaster coming from a mile away—and Donald Trump should have. It had been obvious for over a week that the continuing resolution was turning into a Christmas tree, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) struggled to appease both Democrats and Republicans asking for more spending.
A CNN story quoting Trump team sources said that the President-elect and the Speaker discussed the bill at the Army-Navy game last Saturday. “Trump, according to people familiar with the discussion, told Johnson that he wanted a full-year spending bill—not a short-term [continuing] resolution—and that he wanted the debt limit to be a part of that deal.”
After Trump made that position known to the Speaker, the CNN story claims that Johnson “tried to placate the President-elect without promising to deliver on those specific demands,” and noted that “there was nowhere near enough time” to draft an omnibus spending bill. Per a Trump adviser, Trump didn’t solidify his objections until “the bill text came out and some of the details were being reported out. Up until that point, he was still trying to understand the pros and cons of [a] short-term versus long-term” spending bill.
These quotes explain the President-elect’s silence in the days leading up to the bill’s introduction—but they cannot reconcile his position in the conversation with Johnson last Saturday with his public objections to the bill on Wednesday. By conservative standards, Trump’s asks of 1) a longer duration and 2) a debt limit increase would have made the spending measure worse, not better—turning it from a 1,500-page sort-of omnibus to a full-blown omnibus monstrosity likely totaling 3,000 pages or more, with a debt limit increase and no commensurate spending cuts or reforms.
Trump transition spokesperson, and incoming White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt told Politico that “as soon as President Trump released his official stance on the CR, Republicans on Capitol Hill echoed his point of view….President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. Full stop.” That statement doesn’t explain why Trump 1) let Johnson continue to negotiate a spending bill he had reservations about going ahead with, and 2) did a complete 180 from wanting a much larger spending bill on a Saturday to wanting a pared-back version five days later. If you’re the leader of a party, aren’t you supposed to…you know…lead?
Shutdown Staredown
In their defense, the Trump team would argue that their staff, particularly those working for Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, helped pare back much of the unnecessary and controversial provisions in the continuing resolution, turning a 1,500-page bill into a shorter 100-page measure. But that brings with it an unspoken irony: Had Trump publicly intervened sooner—say, ten days or two weeks before he did—he probably could have gotten the bill that failed on Thursday evening passed. I wouldn’t have supported it, given the unpaid-for disaster relief and the blanket increase in the debt limit (also without spending cuts). But enough Democrats probably would have voted for it to pass the House, and get enacted into law.
Instead, the strategy of “leading from behind”—of going from wanting an even larger bill to complaining that the continuing resolution contained too much unrelated pork-barrel spending—has helped precipitate the current showdown. Because Trump didn’t intervene until the last minute, Democrats feel—not without reason—that they got the rug pulled out from under them at the last minute. Again, I don’t agree at all with the 1,547-page bill on the substance. But on the process, Democrats—who, let’s not forget, still hold the majority in the Senate—have a point in saying “a deal’s a deal.”
Principled on Policy
So yes, Trump’s willingness to make a fast pivot in a way that other politicians would not have done saved conservatives from another disastrous spending bill, at least for the moment. But an elected official grounded in conservative first principles would have sounded the alarm far sooner, rather than waiting until the eleventh hour.
That brings me to Chip Roy, whom Trump called out on Thursday, asking someone to primary the Texas congressman that Trump said had no talent. Trump attacked Roy because Roy objected to Trump’s proposal to suspend or eliminate the debt limit. Unfortunately for the President-elect, 37 other conservative Republicans took Roy’s view over Trump’s, voting against the (slightly) slimmed-down spending bill that rubber-stamped trillions of dollars more in federal debt.
On this subject, I won’t pretend to hide my bias. I have known Chip Roy for over a decade, have worked with and for him, and worked closely with his indefatigable staff. You won’t find a more committed and driven conservative. And the proof lies not in insults about talent or no talent, but in the record.
Chip Roy didn’t pledge “I will never sign another [omnibus] bill like this again,” and then turn around two years later and sign yet another omnibus measure, this one totaling over 5,400 pages and with more than $1 trillion in added spending—Donald Trump did. Chip Roy didn’t run up $8 trillion in debt, including trillions in spending to support Dr. Fauci’s lockdowns during COVID—Donald Trump did. And Chip Roy didn’t commit not to touch the prime drivers of our debt that are bankrupting future generations of Americans—Donald Trump did.
I hope and trust that, in 2026, the good people of Texas’ 21st District will come to the exact same conclusion that have arrived at four times previously: We need more principled leaders like Chip Roy in Washington, not fewer. And I hope that one day, Donald Trump will understand why.