Here is the thing about bullies: If you keep handing them your lunch money, you’ll never know what happens when you take a stand… and you’ll always be afraid of them when they come for more.

If you defy them, however, you will learn that, more often than not, they will move on to an easier target.

It’s like that with Donald Trump, who, when you get down to it, is nothing more than a bully.

Now, to be fair to all those TV networks, law firms, universities, lawmakers, and countries that keep caving to him, he is an extremely powerful bully.

Trump can rely not only on the might of the US government and the assistance of eager toadies, he can also count on an army of devotees who are going to issue death threats, dox, and swat on his behalf (in addition to occasionally sacking the US Capitol).

Therefore, it is not easy to stand up to him.

However, those who do are frequently successful, in large part because many of Trump’s threats are either empty or his responding actions illegal.

For example, when trying to pressure GOP lawmakers, Trump often suggests that he will campaign against them and back primary challengers.

However, he usually lacks the discipline to follow through.

In addition, Trump likes to pretend that the candidates he endorses always win. But it’s not easy to unseat a popular incumbent, so the president risks looking weak if his challenger ends up losing.

As a result, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is still in Congress. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is still in Congress. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is still in Congress.

All of them have drawn the president’s ire and yet they remain in office.

We imagine that the same will end up being true for many of the courageous Indiana state senators who did not yield to Trump’s pressure campaign this week and helped vote down a gerrymandered map that was projected to give the GOP two additional seats in Congress.

That shouldn’t take away from what they did.

Last week, in an editorial that discussed how history will judge Trump and all of the men and women who did his bidding, we mentioned them as an example of Republicans who will be able to hold their heads high and tell their grandchildren that they did the right thing and defied a mad president.

They didn’t just face personal and primary threats but were also told that in no uncertain terms their refusal to rig Indiana’s map would hurt the state.

President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state.

Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to…

— Heritage Action (@Heritage_Action) December 11, 2025

Sure, these are the threats of thugs, but they are still threats.

However, the reaction of the state’s lieutenant governor, Micah Beckwith (R) could indicate that they are just threats.

In a tweet, he wrote that the Trump administration “was VERY clear” about what it wanted to happen.

“They told many lawmakers, Cabinet members and [Gov. Mike Braun] and I that this would happen,” he added. “The Indiana Senate made it clear to the Trump Admin today that they do not want to be partners with the WH. The WH made it clear to them that they’d oblige.”

However, Beckwith later deleted that message, which indicates that he might have realized that he will still have to work with these lawmakers.

And that’s another reason why some of these threats ring hollow (apart from triggering legal challenges that would invalidate them and/or shine a light on how vindictive this administration is): Indiana Republicans from Braun on down still need these senators to advance their agenda.

The same is true for Trump. If every lawmaker in Washington, DC, whom he threatened followed the example of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who announced her resignation last month, the GOP would lose its majority long before the midterms.

In other words, any Republican in Congress has real leverage.

Of course, most of them have displayed a slavish devotion to the president so far.

However, in recent weeks, there have been some cracks in this GOP unity, beginning with the Epstein discharge petition.

In Washington, a lot of the ire of rank-and-file Republicans is directed at House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and not Trump.

However, the president’s plunging poll numbers and a slew of losses in recent elections should have some lawmakers pondering whether they wouldn’t be better off opposing the administration occasionally rather than simply serving as a rubberstamp… even if that means upsetting the bully-in-chief.