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Trump’s Efforts To Reschedule Pot Has Congressional Republicans Fuming

Jan 7, 2026 | National

President Donald Trump has a GOP revolt on his hands. It’s about weed.

In announcing last month that he wants to reduce government regulations on marijuana that have kept taxes high for cannabis companies and made it difficult for researchers to study the drug’s health effects, the president got on the wrong side of the Republican House speaker and four of the party’s top leaders in the Senate.

Trump’s move came a month after Republicans in Congress pushed through their own law, as part of a funding bill to end the government shutdown, restricting products made with a cannabis-derived compound.

Considering Republicans have, by and large, stood by Trump on even his most controversial decisions, the split over pot stands out.

“This president will go down as the most pro-marijuana president,” said Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser to presidents of both parties who doesn’t think Trump’s embrace of pot is a good thing. “He’s not listening to the vast majority of his advisers. He’s not listening to the vast, vast majority of GOP legislators.”

At his December announcement, Trump said he had other constituencies in mind. “We have people begging me to do this,” he said, citing the overwhelming public support in polls for medical marijuana.

Trump wants to expedite moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III on the government’s list of controlled substances. Schedule I drugs, like marijuana, heroin and LSD, are considered highly dangerous with no known medical uses. Schedule III drugs are thought to be less dangerous with some medical uses, such as steroids or Tylenol with codeine.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former Democrat who’s brought his Make America Healthy Again movement into the GOP, backed Trump’s decision. The president’s willingness to ignore his party’s congressional leaders underscores how Trump is willing to defy the old-guard, law-and-order wing of the GOP and embrace the new, more diverse coalition that reelected him, including Kennedy and his supporters.

Read more at Politico

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