Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT), an establishment Republican in the House that Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) warned voters about last cycle, is now unleashing on President Donald Trump by subscribing to leftist pablum that the United States is somehow off the rails and that the “executive branch” Trump oversees needs to be brought “under control.”
Maloy’s comments reportedly came during a town hall event in Salt Lake City, which she hosted with Rep. Mike Kennedy (R-UT), according to the Associated Press (AP). The congresswoman later claimed in a social media post that she does not think the U.S. is moving towards authoritarianism.
During the event, the audience “urged Maloy to denounce Trump’s sweeping federal budget cuts.” While Maloy and Kennedy “said they opposed some of the administration’s cuts,” Maloy admitted that the U.S. is “not going to get out of the situation we’re in financially without all of us feeling some pain”:
The boisterous audience in liberal Salt Lake City repeatedly urged Maloy to denounce Trump’s sweeping federal budget cuts. Maloy wields power over federal funding as a member of the House Appropriations Committee. She and Kennedy said they opposed some of the administration’s cuts, including to the National Park Service. But Maloy also said tough spending decisions are necessary.
In a post on X, Maloy stated she does not think the U.S. is “drifting towards authoritarianism” — words ABC News used to describe her comments during the town hall — while admitting that she does in fact think the executive branch is “too powerful.”
“Do I think America is drifting towards authoritarianism? No. I have only hope and optimism about the direction our country is headed,” Maloy wrote in her post. “Do I think the executive branch is too powerful? Absolutely. It’s been growing for decades. We need smaller federal agencies and we have a unique opportunity to do something about it. The president is doing the tough work of trimming back the executive branch.”
The Deseret News reported in May 2024 that Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) had endorsed Maloy’s primary opponent Colby Jenkins.
At the time, Lee claimed he “started speaking with Jenkins after hearing ‘unflattering’ accusations about Jenkins, and decided they weren’t true,” according to the outlet. Lee and Jenkins reportedly did not “say what the accusations were or who made them.”
Lee’s warning is particularly prescient now as Maloy shows her true colors when it comes to Trump. Republicans have a razor-thin margin in the House of Representatives, and it remains to be seen if Maloy will vote for Trump’s agenda in its entirety.
The establishment Republican congresswoman from Utah, who ascended into the office she currently holds in a special election after now-former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) resigned from the office, could be a critical vote one way or the other. If she throws down with leftists like she did in her recent comments at the town hall, that could endanger the Trump tax cuts and broader agenda. How Speaker Mike Johnson navigates this over the next year and a half ahead of the midterm elections will define Trump’s agenda’s success or not and could determine whether Republicans hold or lose their narrow majority. If voters had heeded Lee’s advice in the primary last year, though, they would not need to worry right now, but alas Maloy ended up surviving against Jenkins.
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