Republicans have long dreamed of a unified White House, Senate and House, working in lockstep to carry out a conservative agenda of lowering taxes, reducing government regulations and repealing the Affordable Care Act, among other issues.

But on Tuesday, in the opening hours of the 115th Congress, two powerful bursts from President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter account left his fellow Republicans scrambling to respond — and wondering if they’re in for four years of such missives, if not more.


"Congress is not used to having a president to go on Twitter and do that," said Rep. Lou Barletta, a Pennsylvania Republican. "That's not the way things have worked here. It was different. It was just different."

The salvo from Trump came as Republicans were already weathering widespread criticism after they voted to weaken a congressional ethics watchdog. But Trump’s scolding tweets — rebuking Republicans for their priorities — were "cold water on the heads of some people,” said Barletta, one of the members of Trump’s transition team.

Within hours, as the outcry grew, partially as a result of Trump’s vast Twitter following, Republicans reversed course. The spectacle left some members shaking their heads, unsure how the situation on the first day of the new session had gotten so out-of-control when Republicans had long craved holding power in all three branches of government.

"You have a Republican House, Senate and White House, and one of the first actions was going to be to lighten the ethics rules," said Rep. Mark Sanford, a South Carolina Republican. "That was not exactly consistent with the notion of draining the swamp."

Whether the discord has any further ramifications remains unclear. Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican also on Trump's transition team, said Republicans are working "hand in glove" with Trump and understand that the president-elect will set the agenda. Barletta said Vice President-elect Mike Pence and other senior members of Trump's team had already outlined their plans for the first quarter — which included changing the tax code, beginning the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and reducing regulations — and that Republicans in Congress agreed.

Barletta said Trump will get Congress to do more work, partially because he can "speak to millions of Americans directly" if he doesn't like something. "That's why he is the president," Barletta said.

Two powerful bursts from President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter account left his fellow Republicans scrambling to respond Tuesday. | AP Photo

What happened after Trump's tweets showed how Washington was already changing to the whims of the Manhattan billionaire. Members had caught flak for more than 12 hours, with thousands of constituents calling Capitol Hill, according to members and aides in six different Congressional offices. House leadership realized the issue was heading south.

While the president-elect was apparently caught off guard — a Trump aide said the president-elect wasn't aware of the vote before Monday evening — initially the matter was left to Pence and other Trump officials, who were in touch with congressional leadership after the vote.

And at the outset, Trump’s aides publicly tried to smooth over the matter. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to Trump, defended the move to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, telling ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the changes would cut down on the panel’s “overzealousness.”

But Trump soon after expressed his own displeasure to his 18.5 million followers, encouraging the GOP to “Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!”

“The Trump tweet amplified the discomfort that our members had,” said a senior House Republican aide. “It didn’t change the course where things were already heading.”

Sanford said Trump elevated the issue "beyond-the-beltway" and further stoked public outrage. "It became an outside of Washington issue." Members discussed the president's feelings among themselves and at a hastily called meeting, according to several people present.

"It was everyone lighting up the phone lines, and then Trump's tweet," Collins said. "President-Elect Trump's tweets totally shifted the mood of the conference."

Congress members mirrored Trump's language in explaining why they dropped their proposal, but what would happen next remained unclear. Some lawmakers said they expected to take up the issue in six months or so, when attention had died down, and others said they hoped it would disappear forever. Barletta said Republicans had to get Democrats on board, and he expected they would try.

The wording of the rebuke itself was carefully crafted. It questioned the Office of Congressional Ethics — “as unfair as it may be” — and stopped short of criticizing lawmakers for weakening it, instead hitting them for the timing of its gutting. It’s not clear how often Trump will directly intervene on specific congressional actions, especially because of his inclination to delegate on certain matters.

A number of members and top aides said they'd largely heard so far from Pence, who is close to House Speaker Paul Ryan, and other aides — and not the president-elect himself — about congressional issues.

Even on Tuesday, Trump only spoke with Ryan after the ethics rules were reversed, on a call that Pence joined.

Sanford said some members were alienated by the tweets and that Trump had the potential to become aloof like President Obama if he continues to "box people in," even though Sanford said he opposed the weakening of the ethics rules.

"You can't tweet your way to a legislative victory. There may be a short run, tactical victories — long-run, the grind of legislative activity ultimately is probably hampered by the tweet world," he said. "People don't react well to being embarrassed."

Trump's allies say embarrassing other politicians is exactly what his supporters want.

"It's going to be a complicated rough and tumble relationship," said Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House and a close Trump ally. "There will be more tension than expected because Trump is not a regular Republican."