Fifteen — that's how many executive orders it took President Trump to issue before congressional Republicans balked.

Lawmakers hate being cut out of the action, but as long as Trump was inking commands they agreed with, Republicans were OK with it. That changed Saturday when Trump issued a sweeping order that curtails travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Even many Republicans who supported more stringent vetting of Syrian refugees, tightening the visa waiver program, and taking a closer look at visitors from certain countries, were critical of Trump's actions.

Trump had already issued 14 executive orders before Saturday's, with little — if any — dissent from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Republicans privately concede that although executive "overreach" was their chief complaint about Barack Obama, they were fine with Trump wielding the presidential pen as long they agreed with his policies.

But top Republicans, as well as rank-and-file GOPers, were stunned that Trump pulled the trigger on such an expansive order without input from key cabinet officials, such as the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security—let alone from lawmakers.

"They should've been consulted," and lawmakers should have been too, Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. said about the cabinet secretaries.

The White House issued an executive order "on vetting that was not vetted appropriately," said Jeff Marschner, deputy chief of staff to Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va. "It appears there was little interagency involvement, and the executive order was too broad," he said, echoing the complaints of many Republicans who agree with the order, in theory.

Regardless of Republicans' positions on the order's substance, the botched rollout—and public blowback—demonstrates that just hopping on the Trump train could mean signing up for a bumpy ride.

"He's off to a fast start, but it's certainly been rocky and unconventional," Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., said.

"The tolerance of" Trump using executive authority "was directly correlated to the impact of the executive order and the reach of the executive order," said one Republican consultant. "Up until the immigration executive order, most of what was being announced was like a glorified press release, or a gloried position paper—this was one that essentially clashed with Congress."

Constituents have been burning up congressional phone lines with tales of legal residents being detained in airports around the globe. Members of Congress have scrambled to help them and are demanding answers from the Trump administration about how the order should be implemented.

The order's implementation "we can all agree has not gone well," Dent said.

"The rollout was confusing," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., conceded Tuesday.

"That is why I'm confident Secretary Kelly and others are going to make sure we have the proper review and vetting so we can get this program up and running with proper security safeguards," he said, referring to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, whom Trump reportedly did not consult before issuing the order and who met with congressional leaders Tuesday afternoon to help smooth things over.

Members of Congress are "always willing to support their president until it directly clashes with their self-interest," the Republican consultant said.

Republicans have dreaded this moment. Privately they admit that their president's unconventional and brash style served him well on the campaign trail but worried about how it would convert to governing.

"We're seeing Republicans falling in line behind a Republican president," said the Brookings Institution's Molly Reynolds. "The point at which we'd see danger for them politically is when there are any indications that these actions by Trump are making Republicans unpopular," she said.

As long as Republican lawmakers are still popular in Republican congressional districts, they will stay the course with Trump, she said.

"No one really knows what the red line for Republican voters would be and where they would start to sour on Trump" and if any such souring would be over his style or the substance of his actions, Reynolds said.

Beyond public backlash, Republicans have to worry about accusations of hypocrisy.

"If you criticize the Obama administration for doing something, and if the Trump Administration does the exact same thing and you don't say something, that is hypocrisy," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., charged Tuesday.

Republicans are left saying that, unlike Obama, Trump did not overreach — that he has wide legal latitude when it comes to immigration.

But House Republicans, in particular, are making that argument at the same time they are pursuing an agenda of restoring the legislative branch's "Article II" powers.

"What I have witnessed, particularly in the last eight years, is the expansion and growth of Article II, the executive branch," Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said recently. "So I made it a priority for me, a focus for me and my time in Congress to help restore constitutional boundaries and authority, particularly as a member of Congress."

Earlier this month, the House passed the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act—a bill that gives Congress more say over regulatory agencies and that Republicans have tried to make law for years to combat what they say was regulatory overreach by Obama.

Almost every week, Republicans introduce similar legislation, which they say is needed to keep the executive branch in check, regardless of who is sitting on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

"It's just good governance," House Republican Vice Chairman Doug Collins of Georgia said about one his such bills. "I don't want a Republican president circumventing Congress either."