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Senator John Curtis prides himself on collaborating with people who disagree with him. But with a Republican trifecta in place, it’s not clear whether Mitt Romney’s successor will follow in his footsteps.
Feb. 2, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET
Senator John Curtis, Republican of Utah, had not yet been sworn in for his first term nor opened his mouth to say much of anything in public when he found himself under attack by President Trump’s most fervent supporters for the alleged sin of being insufficiently loyal.
“I’m tired of RINO Republicans running everything,” Charlie Kirk, the right-wing provocateur, declared on X, using a term that stands for “Republican in Name Only” to condemn Mr. Curtis and three other Republicans he claimed had derailed former Representative Matt Gaetz, Mr. Trump’s first pick for attorney general. “TIME TO REPLACE ALL OF THEM.”
Hundreds of calls, many of them angry, poured into Mr. Curtis’s office. Online, the alt-right branded him a “disgrace” and a “traitor.”
“In the middle of it, it feels like a storm,” he said in a recent interview in his barren, subterranean office on Capitol Hill. “But then when you sit back and evaluate it, it’s a couple hundred calls.”
Mr. Curtis, 64, a former House member and mayor who has labeled himself “normal” and made headlines for saying he’s unafraid to disagree with Mr. Trump, may be in for a similar tempest in the days to come.
All eyes are on him as a potentially critical swing vote as the Senate prepares to consider three of Mr. Trump’s more polarizing nominees. Among them is Tulsi Gabbard, whose candidacy for director of national intelligence appears to be in jeopardy after an hourslong confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Intelligence Committee.
