After being harshly criticized by President Donald Trump over his bill to ban stock trading among top government leaders, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said that despite the criticism, the president "wants to get it done." (Alex Brandon and Joseph A. Wulfsohn/AP Photo/Fox News Digital)
Hawley quickly sought to do damage control while explaining his vote.
"I love the president. I think he’s doing a great job," he told reporters afterward. "I just think, when it comes to Venezuela, which is what we’re voting on today — I think that if the president should determine that he needed to put troops on the ground in a country, Venezuela, I just think in Article I, we would need to vote on that."
But Hawley has broken with Trump in several other areas, like on healthcare, unions and his push to ban stock trading in Congress.
The last time the president publicly berated the lawmaker was in July, when Hawley broke away from Republicans in a bid to get his Honest Act, originally named the PELOSI Act after the former House Speaker and her infamous stock portfolio, out of committee.
'NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME': TRUMP, REPUBLICANS SLAM GOP LEADER'S STOCK TRADE BAN BILL
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was on the receiving end of President Donald Trump's fury after voting to curtail his war powers in Venezuela, and it wasn't the first time the two have split. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Hawley also has differing views on unions compared to Trump, who signed two executive orders last year targeting federal labor unions. Still, he was skeptical of supporting a bill from Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, that would’ve reversed those orders.
"I don't know," Hawley told Fox News Digital at the time. "The public sector unions and private sector unions seem to be two different things."
Then there was Hawley’s public dissatisfaction with Trump’s "big, beautiful bill," over deep cuts to Medicaid that he and a handful of other Senate Republicans argued would have shuttered several rural hospitals throughout the country.
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His anger was directed toward the lawmakers who crafted the healthcare portion, but in the moment, he threatened to vote against the legislation, which ultimately squeaked through the Senate with a single vote to spare.
"I think it was a huge mistake," Hawley said at the time. "I think this has been an unhappy episode here in Congress, this effort to cut Medicaid."
"And I think, frankly, my party needs to do some soul-searching," he continued. "If you want to be a working-class party, you've got to get delivered for working-class people. You cannot take away healthcare from working people."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hawley-breaks-trump-venezuela-policy-rift-continues