For years, Republicans on Capitol Hill have tried to stay on President Donald Trump’s good side, defending his policies and avoiding criticism of even his most controversial actions.

In recent weeks that dynamic has shifted, with lawmakers criticizing Trump’s opposition to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, his recent military action in Venezuela and the Justice Department’s investigation of the chair of the Federal Reserve. 

Although the GOP conference remains strongly in Trump’s corner overall, the rumblings come as Republicans have lost special elections and off-year races by wider-than-expected margins and remain down in the polls heading into the fall midterms, leading a record number of incumbents to retire.

The issues that have flared up show some potential fault lines that Republicans will have to navigate in the next few years. On the Epstein files, that was defending Trump’s personal controversies. On Venezuela, it’s military intervention and isolationism. And on the Fed, it’s the party’s ties to Wall Street.

Read Mychael Schnell’s analysis here.

At a White House event Friday, Trump said the United States was going to “do something” about Greenland “whether they like it or not,” adding that there was an “easy way” and a “hard way.”

Here are some highlights of the president’s actions over the last seven days:

The news can feel overwhelming. But each week, we pause to highlight a person, organization or movement sticking up for their principles or their fellow Americans. This week’s challenger is Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.

Trump has made no secret of his desire to have more control over the Federal Reserve, and not just through the traditional Senate-approved appointments. When it came out over the weekend that Fed Chair Jerome Powell is being investigated by the Department of Justice, a key Republican released a statement against it. “If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” said Tillis, a North Carolina senator whose term ends this year. Tillis said he would block any Trump appointees to the Fed until the charges against Powell were “resolved.” But Tillis isn’t just any senator. He’s a member of the Senate Banking Committee, which has 13 Republicans and 11 Democrats. His defection ensures a stalemate, meaning no Trump appointee would make it out of committee. 

Denmark and Greenland have a long and complicated history stretching back centuries. While there’s a growing independence movement in the territory, the 57,000 residents living on the world’s largest island — three times the size of Texas — still rely on almost $700 million annually from Denmark to pay for health care, social services, infrastructure and other needs. Trump wants to upend all of that. Yesterday he said, “One way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland.” On Friday, he threatened, “If we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.” Greenland is important to U.S. national security. It’s also home to rare-earth minerals crucial for today’s technologies. Both Greenland and Denmark welcome more U.S. economic and military investment. What they don’t accept is Greenland becoming part of the U.S. Then again, most Americans feel the same way too.

— Charles Herman, Coordinating Producer, “The 11th Hour”