solare Republicans Love Trump’s Spending Cuts. Just Not in Their States.

Republicans in Congress have responded to President Trump’s unilateral moves to freeze federal spending, dismantle programs and fire civil servants with a collective shrugsolare, staying mostly silent and even praising him as he circumvents the legislative branch.

Among national universities, Princeton was ranked No. 1 again, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Stanford, which tied for third last year, fell to No. 4. U.S. News again judged Williams College the best among national liberal arts colleges. Spelman College was declared the country’s top historically Black institution.

Calls for school crackdowns have mounted with reports of cyberbullying among adolescents and studies indicating that smartphones, which offer round-the-clock distraction and social media access, have hindered academic instruction and the mental health of children.

But in recent days, as his slash-and-burn campaign to remake the government has begun to affect their states and districts, some Republicans have tried to push back in subtle ways. They have sought carve outs and special consideration for agriculture programs, scientific research and more, even as they cheered on Mr. Trump’s overall approach.

Their swift and quiet moves to protect their own pieces of the federal spending pie without critiquing Mr. Trump are an early indication of the political realities that could pose obstacles to the president’s push. Many programs he has targeted for cost-cutting have entrenched constituencies in Congress built up by Republicans over many years. It is one reason that shrinking the size of the federal government will be a mammoth task,phmoba casino despite the G.O.P.’s posture of maximum deference to Mr. Trump.

Take Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, the successor to Senator Richard C. Shelby, who retired in 2022 at age 88 as one of the last big-time pork barrel legends in Congress. Mr. Shelby, Ms. Britt’s former boss, was renowned for his record of steering billions of dollars in federal spending to his state over a 36-year career.

Ms. Britt was one of the first Republicans to raise concerns at home soon after the Trump administration directed the National Institutes of Health to slash $4 billion in overhead costs for medical research grantees, a move that has since been paused by a federal judge. Ms. Britt, whose state has received more than $518 million in N.I.H. grants for projects currently active there, told a local news outlet that she would press administration officials to take a “smart, targeted approach” to cuts so as to “not hinder lifesaving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions” such as the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

In the House, a group of Republicans from farm states and districts introduced legislation this week that aims to salvage a foreign aid program targeted for extinction by Mr. Trump as part of his effort to wipe out the U.S. Agency for International Development.

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