Congressman Zach Nunn is learning that it doesn’t yield much, and it comes with its own set of new political problems.
It can’t be easy being a Trump acolyte in Congress. U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn’s (R-3rd IA) latest, frantic efforts to make himself appear relevant are providing plenty of evidence of that fact.
His near sycophantic and certainly excessive and extreme obedience to Trump doesn’t get him much, but does bring him a basketful of new political woes as Trump’s poplarity plummets, even in states like Iowa.
Nunn made what has to be one the worst political decisions in recent memory. He choses to go all in withTrump on anything and everything. He’s not the only member of the Iowa delegation to do so.
That might have made sense – maybe – for a Republican from bright red Iowa when Trump wa riding high, winning Iowa in 2024 with 55.7 per cent of the vote, a winning margin in the state of 13.2 percent over Vice President Kamala Harris.
That’s not at all the landslide Republicans try to make it, but it was a good solid win in the state, just the same.
Today? Different story.
With each new, outrageous, fascist authoritarian step Trump takes, his dismantling of the federal government, and his apparent willingness – no, make that eagerness – to serve as a hired hand in foreign policy to Russian President Vladimir Putin, it’s gotten a lot more complicated.
Even a casual reader of Nunn’s taxpayer paid efforts to communicate with Iowans can see that he’s furiously trying to shift gears – not to put some distance between him and Trump, of course. It is far too late for that. Nunn is trying even harder to make it appear he is accomplishing things in Washington, DC, or at least is a force to be reckoned with there.
Which he is not, really.
With Trump’s rapid deterioration in popularity, and Trump not even on the ballot, there will be no Trump coat tails to save Nunn in 2026. He’ll have to win re-election, if he can, on his own.
For some time now, Nunn’s press releases have been more entertaining than a source of actual news or non-self congratulating information. They are full of pronouncements that might lead one to believe that Congress wouldn’t get anything done if Mr. Nunn of Iowa wasn’t there to guide and direct it.
A favorite “genre” of mine when it comes to Nunn’s press releases are the ones in which he stomps around and “demands” this, or “demands” that. This was a favorite technique he used to excess during the Biden administration.
He was always “demanding” that Joe Biden do something or other. In truth, those loud “demands” were often put into a press release and no where else.
While his press releases would make you think Zach Nunn could often be found standing nose to nose with President Joe Biden, loudly objecting to something, demanding that something be done or undone, the demands often weren’t even communicated to Biden in so much as a letter to the White House, a mere two miles down Pennsylvania Avenue from the US Capitol building.
Even though the presidential election was over eight months ago, and Biden hasn’t been president for half a year, Nunn still regularly bashes him in his press releases. Just can’t let the old guy go, I guess.
Hey, I get it.
Biden bashing is a lot easier than actually passing a bill through Congress, so I guess he’ll be gnawing on Biden’s bones for some time to come.
But Nunn is showing signs that he knows he has a bigger political problem as Trump’s popularity implodes, and his unAmericanism, and treachery toward democracy grows.
In short, Nunn is coming face to face with the downside of being a Trump acolyte. His attempts to deal with that, while still keeping the MAGA Trumpers happy, are not going well:
- First, Nunn is doubling down even harder on everything Trump. Clearly, he hopes Trump voters, fed a steady diet of outrage, will carry him across the finish line as the winner in 2026. It’s his best hope because the “No King” protests across Iowa make clear the universe of non-MAGA Republicans willing to vote to return a Trump lackey to Congress in 2026 shrinks daily
- From the other side of the continent, with no first hand knowledge of what he was talking about, Nunn immediately sided with Trump’s lie that Los Angeles was engulfed in violent riots. The Governor of California, the Mayor of Los Angeles and hundreds of independent on-site observers denied that.
- When Trump violated the law and the constitution by sending active duty Marines to an American city, Nunn – who took an oath to support the constitution – immediately sided with Trump and his violation of it. Nunn praised Trump for taking “the right steps to ensure that our men and women in blue were backed up by men and women in fatigues.” A federal court ruled that Trump grossly overstepped his bounds with that deployment.Count on it. In his 2026 re-election campaign, Nunn will have to defend his bad judgment on this matter, as well as his betrayal of the Constitution.
- You can also count on Nunn being asked to explain why it is necessary to violate the Constitution to “back up” the “men and women in blue” in LA. Still, he had no such concern about the need to “back up” the “men and women in blue” at the US Capitol on January 6 as they were defending it from insurrectionists who attacked our democracy.Those “men and women in blue” put their lives on the line to protect Nunn and his colleagues. Five police officers died and 150 were seriously wounded.
Nunn is also ramping up his effort to make Iowans think he is winning great victories when he is not.
For example, Nunn recently went to the White House to meet with Trump. Why? To invite him to visit the Iowa State Fair in August, a decision that was certainly made long before Nunn even thought about asking him. But Nunn got his picture taken and was able to announce the president would attend the fair.
Did Nunn mention the long over-due Farm Bill, and that it would be nice if the president would get involved in getting it moving? It is already more than 600 days since the old Farm Bill expired, and a nudge from Nunn – a member of the House Agriculture Committee – might have been helpful.
READ MORE. Barry Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtain.
624 days have passed since the 2018 Farm Bill expired on September 30, 2023, without Congress passing a new one. (Total days as of Sunday, 06/15/2025).
Two thirds of Iowa’s congressional delegation serves on the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture Committees: Grassley (R-IA) and Ernst (R-IA) in the Senate; Nunn (R-3rd IA) and Feenstra (R-4th IA) in the House.
There is little indication Congress will act any time soon to pass a new Farm Bill, or if it does – given the Trump wrecking ball and the eagerness of Republicans in Congress to follow him in that effort – that it will be helpful to farmers.
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