The Downside of Being a Trump Acolyte in Congress

Congressman Zach Nunn is learning it doesn't get you 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 judgement 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, but 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 officer 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.

Apparently it didn’t come up. At least Nunn’s breathless announcement about the president attending the fair didn’t mention it. Sorry Iowa farmers. Maybe next time.

Expect Nunn - a member of the House Agriculture Committee - to be asked to defend the utter failure of Congress to enact a new Farm Bill and to explain why people like him are ignoring the need to write a new once, especially after they pledged during the last TWO elections to enact a new one promptly.

Congress and Nunn dropped the ball. He’s going to be asked to defend that festering inaction.

Perhaps the “best” example of what “big victories” looks like with Nunn attached to the toxic Trump’s hip, however, is the fate of the Ottumwa Job Corps.

Nunn says it is one of the best Job Corps centers in America.

Trump’s Labor Department is closing it.

Nunn writes on Facebook that he “engaged directly with the Labor Secretary” (he wrote him a letter) to make the case that 88% of the Ottumwa Job Corps graduates are placed in jobs that pay more than $10,000 annually and that the Ottumwa program is 50% more efficient than the average program.

Nunn’s big victory? “We secured a month long extension, and now the focus is on working with local leaders and the Trump team for a smooth transition for the 200+ students affected,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Stop the presses! The Congressman from Iowa’s third district was able to get the Labor Department to delay pulling the plug on the Ottumwa Job Corps center for a month. One month.

It will still be closed. Just a month later than originally planned.

That’s not a great victory. It’s a sop.

Nunn doesn’t even appear to have put up a fight to get the closing decision reversed. His main ask in his letter to the Secretary of Labor was for a delay. The last ask, his lowest priorty - clearly telegraphed by that order - was that the decision to close it be reconsidered.

I can’t think of a more milk toast, ineffective request if he intended to save it.

He seemed happy to get the 30 day delay, not bothered at all with the refusal to keep it open, and walked away.

It apparently was just easier to misrepresent that sop as a big win. It was not a big win, by any measure.

It seems to me this request was, at a minimum, at least as important as inviting the president to the state fair in August. That request warranted a visit to the White House - to the Oval Office itself - by Mr. Nunn to meet personally with the President.

The effort to save the Job Corps in Ottumwa did not, by Nunn’s measure.

A visit to “directly engage with the Labor Secretary” in person, or at least in a phone call - or even bringing it up to Trump directly at the Oval Office photo op about the state fair were also reasonable options one might have expected Nunn to pursue.

He did not. Nunn let the matter drop. Without a fight. Then he walked away.

I guess Nunn knows with whom he’s dealing. And he probably knows by now that being a Trump lackey gets you nothing from Trump.

Just political barnacles.

Besides, somebody’s has to pay for those big tax cuts for billionaires for which Congressman Nunn voted, you know.

WEEKLY OVER DUE FARM BILL TRACKER: 624 days

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.

This column is published as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative (IWC) which links readers and terrific, professional writers with each other across the state and nation. The IWC is a new model for local journalism and an experiment. New market dynamics are forcing traditional media to shrink what they offer. The IWC is attempting to fill that gap, and this column is one of those efforts, offering the kind of commentary and “behind the curtains” look at politics and government that is difficult to find elsewhere.

Overall, the IWC offers political and general news, opinion commentary, features, and even poetry.

All columns are reader supported. That means we rely on your paid and free subscriptions to produce the wide variety of material offered by the IWC. We also count on your sharing, re-stacking, and recommending our columns to friends, collegues and family to help readers find us.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. No IWC column accepts paid advertising. Your paid subscription is how we make this experiment work, and is very much appreciated.

We are also grateful for your free subscription, your “likes,” re-stacks, and recommendations!

Please review and sample the complete list of IWC writers and columns, by sampling the IWC “Sunday Round Up” of columns at this link: iowawriters.substack.com

SPECIAL ALERT - PAID SUBSCRIBER PREMIUMS: Now is the perfect time to become a paid subscriber to this column or any IWC column. When you become a paid subscriber, you will become eligible to receive an invitation to join IWC writers, in person, on July 26, 2025 at a special event just for paid subscribers, in Winterset, Iowa.

We’ll get know each other at a reception with plenty of time for informal visiting. We will also enjoy a private screening of the award winning documentary film, “Storm Lake,” which features IWC writer and Pulitzer Prize winning editor Art Cullen who will introduce the film, discuss it and answer questions afterwards.

This is a great opportunity to meet some of the best writers and thinkers in Iowa, and for them to get to meet you!

You will also be invited to a monthly live get together with IWC writers on the last Friday of every month over Zoom. It’s called the “Office Lounge” and it’s one hour of informal conversation between IWC writers and paid subscribers. It is. always informative and lots of fun. It takes place over the noon hour (Iowa time), and you are free to bring your lunch and enjoy it as we visit.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber today!