Greenland sparks rare resistance to Trump in his own party

Donald Trump pulled back from the brink on Greenland but not before causing untold damage to the Nato alliance.

- By David Smith WASHINGTON

The US president's sabre-rat-tling may also have shaken the faith of his own Republican party.

Trump's fleeting threat to conquer the Danish territory prompted the most strident Republican opposition to anything he has done since taking office. It came after challenges to his authority over military powers, healthcare legislation and the Epstein files.

The mini-rebellion suggests that a vocal minority of Republicans feel increasingly emboldened to speak out against a 79-year-old leader who, for all his dominance of the party, is polling dismally and could drag them down in November's midterm elections.

"You've never had a president with this much influence and this much political and legislative success so in that sense he's winning but his own party is starting to question and wonder out loud at what cost?" said Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster. “He has been the most influential president since Franklin Roosevelt but the public and even people in his own party are starting to wonder whether it's too much.”

Speculating over Trump's grip on the Republican party has been a political sport for a decade, producing many false dawns along the way. Dissenting senators and representatives such as Liz Cheney have been ruthlessly purged or made to feel they have no alternative but retirement.