Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) suggested Friday that a Republican migration away from President Trump is underway as a result of Trump not understanding voters or their needs.
“The president may not want to talk about the affordability crisis, but he’s going to have to,” Flake said in an interview with CNN host Erin Burnett. “The notion that prices are down everywhere. They really aren’t, and people know that.”
“The Republican Party and the president seem completely out of touch with where the economy is, particularly the effect of tariffs,” he told the “OutFront” host, as highlighted by Mediaite. “Tariffs are inflationary. That is a Republican article of faith.”
The former lawmaker added, “And you’ll see a lot of Republicans starting to migrate back to the new, old ground, where we used to reside.”
Flake also pointed out that Republicans are starting to stand up to Trump over his calls to end the Senate filibuster rule as the record-long government shutdown drags on. He also cited growing pushback on the administration’s sweeping tariff agenda as a signal that the party is moving on from the president.
On affordability, which Trump recently called a “dead” issue, Flake compared the Trump’s claims of lower prices to what Democrats said about inflation decreasing under former President Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
“That’s the same predicament the president is now in,” the Arizona Republican said. “So you’re seeing a migration of Republicans away from these firm positions that the president has held and that will only accelerate as we get closer to [the 2026] midterms.”
In an op-ed published Thursday by the Washington Post, the former lawmaker made a similar argument about the Republican Party moving away from Trump, citing Democrats’ victories in key state races across the country earlier this week.
“In politics, migrations rarely happen all at once,” Flake wrote. “They start quietly — one or two members of a herd moving toward safer ground while the rest pretend not to notice. But once the wind really changes, the movement becomes unmistakable.”
He added, “I believe that a migration has begun within the Republican Party.”
On Friday, Flake commended the Republicans for “wisely saying no” as Trump has leaned in on his filibuster reform push.
“Now, some of them put it in terms of, ‘The votes aren’t there,’ instead of saying, ‘It’s a bad idea,’ and that’s what most Republicans believe,” he continued. “And it truly is. But they’re standing up to the president there.”
The former lawmaker has been a frequent critic of the president since the first Trump administration and as the threat of political violence has grown in recent years. He has also criticized the administration over Trump’s trade and foreign policy agenda.
In a separate Washington Post op-ed in September, Flake said the U.S.’s role in maintaining global stability and promoting freedom was “in jeopardy” in the second Trump administration.
He wrote that the “containment” from Trump’s first term is gone, placing the “responsibility to speak out now” on Republicans.
“The voices of restraint within the administration have largely fallen silent,” Flake, who served under the Biden administration as U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2022-2024, wrote. “Degrading our allies and admiring autocrats are no longer exceptions — they are part of the message.”
He added, “Diplomatic damage control is rare, if it happens at all.”
Flake, during the 2024 election, also said he would vote for former Vice President Harris over Trump.
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