On April 16, 2026, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama — a former college football coach who once couldn’t name the three branches of government — went on MAGA influencer Benny Johnson’s show and delivered the most accidentally honest assessment of the Republican Party in the Trump era. “Hell, we ain’t done anything in the majority,” he said. “Why should we keep majority?” The answer, for anyone paying attention, is that they shouldn’t. Not because they don’t have the power. Because they refuse to use it for anything other than keeping it.
“Everything that goes on up here, Benny, is about, oh, we got to get reelected. We got to keep the majority. Well, hell, we ain’t done anything in the majority. Why should we keep majority?”
— Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), April 16, 2026
Tuberville wasn’t done. He went on: “We’ve gotten one bill passed, and that was President Trump pushing and pushing and what took us 18 hours to get Republicans to vote for, 18 hours straight on the Senate floor. And it’s embarrassing that we’re up here and we’re raising money to continue to the same people being up here. It’s just nonsense. It’s really nonsense.”
He is describing, with perfect clarity, a party that exists solely to perpetuate itself. They hold every lever of power in the federal government. They have a 53-seat Senate majority, a House majority, a 6-3 Supreme Court, and a president who will sign anything they put in front of him. They have passed one major bill — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was mostly tax cuts for the wealthy and took 18 hours of arm-twisting to clear. And now they’re fundraising to keep doing exactly this.
Major legislation passed: 1 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025)
DHS funding status: Still unfunded — the longest department shutdown in U.S. history
Trump approval (economy): 31% approve (CNN/SSRS, April 2026) — lowest in either term
Trump approval (overall): Net negative among white non-college voters for the first time
Generic ballot: Democrats leading
Trump’s message to Congress: “We’ve already passed everything that you need. You should be able to get yourselves reelected.”
Kennedy Said It First. Tuberville Made It Worse.
Tuberville isn’t the first Republican to say this. In February, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana — a man best known for folksy one-liners and performative ignorance — told The Hill: “We’re not going to win the midterm by going to the American people and saying, ‘Look, we passed 11 out of 12 appropriations bills and we confirmed all of President Trump’s nominees.’” He said voters care about their checkbooks, not the Senate calendar. He was right.
But here’s the thing about Kennedy and Tuberville sounding the alarm: they’re the alarm. They are the problem they’re describing. Tuberville runs on culture war slogans. Kennedy campaigns on down-home quips and viral clips. Neither of them has introduced a single bill to address the affordability crisis they say voters are demanding. They see the fire. They’re holding the matches. And they’re confused about where the smoke is coming from.
Trump Told Them to Stop Trying
The truly stunning part is what the president said when Republicans privately raised concerns about the legislative agenda. According to multiple reports, Trump told Republican members of Congress: “We’ve already passed everything that you need. You should be able to get yourselves reelected with everything that we’ve done.”
That was it. Trump declared victory, pocketed his tax cuts, and told Congress to stop bothering him. He’s busy threatening to bomb Iran, feuding with the Pope, and posting AI images of himself as Jesus. The legislative agenda? That was last year’s problem. Your 2026 problem is your problem.
The Coalition Is Cracking
What makes Tuberville’s admission matter isn’t just the candor — it’s the timing. The MAGA coalition is fracturing. A YouGov/CBS poll from April 8–10 shows Trump is now underwater with white voters without a college degree — 48% approve, 52% disapprove. That’s a 40-point collapse from the +36 net approval he held with that group in February 2025. A CNN/SSRS poll this month shows just 31% approve of his handling of the economy — the lowest in either of his terms. 63% say the economy is bad.
The Iran war is accelerating the decay. A CBS/YouGov poll found 68% of Americans feel worried about the war, 57% feel stressed, and 54% feel angry. 64% disapprove of how Trump is handling Iran. 51% say rising gas prices from the war have been a financial hardship. This is the backdrop against which Tuberville is telling a MAGA influencer that his party has done nothing.
MSNBC’s analysis this week put it plainly: “This week seems to be the first week where the MAGA coalition really started to fracture, at least with regards to attitudes about Iran.” Republican senators aren’t just worried about losing seats. They’re trying to figure out how to run without defending a president whose war is tanking their numbers and whose legislative agenda ended 18 months ago.
What Tuberville Actually Revealed
Tuberville also issued a warning: “We lose this next election, which we got a good chance of doing after not busting the filibuster. They’ll bust it the very first day over here. And you’re getting ready to see a third-world country on speed dial. It’ll go very, very fast.”
There it is. The quiet part, screamed. A Republican senator believes his own party has accomplished nothing, will probably lose because of it, and thinks the consequence will be the destruction of America. He’s running for governor of Alabama. He’s not running on his Senate record. Because there is no record. Because they ain’t done anything.
Republicans control everything. They have used that control to cut taxes for the rich, start a war, shut down the Department of Homeland Security by refusing to fund it without ICE spending, and confirm judges. Everything else — affordability, housing, healthcare, infrastructure — has been left to “the next bill” or “the second reconciliation package” that keeps getting pushed back. The president told them to stop asking.
And now a sitting senator is on a podcast saying, out loud, that they have a “good chance” of losing it all — not because Democrats outsmarted them, but because they didn’t do a single goddamn thing with the power they were given.
Sources
- MEXC News: Tuberville on Benny Johnson show, April 16, 2026 — “Hell, we ain’t done anything in the majority. Why should we keep majority?”; “good chance” of losing midterms; one bill passed; “embarrassing”; warning about filibuster and “third-world country on speed dial.”
- Ring of Fire (video): Kennedy told The Hill: “We’re not going to win the midterm by going to the American people and saying, ‘Look, we passed 11 out of 12 appropriations bills.’” Tuberville: “Are we doing enough? We’re not doing anything. Everybody’s working on getting elected.” Both senators flagging lack of affordability agenda. February 2026.
- MSNBC — The Weeknight, April 16: “MAGA coalition that is fracturing”; “this week seems to be the first week where the MAGA coalition really started to fracture on Iran”; Republican senator “says the quiet part out loud, admitting the party has done nothing with their majorities.”
- Daily Beast: YouGov/CBS polling — Trump at -4 net approval among white non-college voters (48% approve, 52% disapprove, April 8–10); down from +36 in February 2025; CNN/SSRS: 31% approve of Trump’s economy handling; 63% say economy is bad; 64% disapprove of Iran handling. April 13, 2026.
- YouTube — GOP facing 2026 nightmare: Republican senators “openly warning Trump could cost us everything”; one senator: “Are we doing enough? We’re not doing anything.”; Trump told Congress: “We’ve already passed everything that you need.” February 2026.
- G. Elliott Morris: MAGA self-identification dropped six points in a year; 59% of Republicans identify as MAGA (YouGov); non-MAGA Republicans net approval of Trump down 40 points since inauguration; independents at -39 on Iran handling. March 22, 2026.
- EOH: White non-college voter collapse in Trump approval
- EOH: The DHS Shutdown Is the Longest in U.S. History