While Trumpism has become the most significant faction of the Republican Party in the last few years, Liz Cheney is one woman who refuses to bend to Donald Trump. The former congresswoman from Wyoming is known as one of the Republican Party’s strongest anti-Trump voices.
Despite losing her seat due to her anti-Trump sentiments, Cheney refused to fold then, and refuses now. But that was not always the case, and she was, in fact, supportive of Trump’s policies at the beginning of his first term.
So what went wrong, and how did the daughter of a former Republican Vice President become a lone wolf in her party? Let’s go back in the past a little to understand. Born on July 28, 1966, Liz is the elder daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
In a special mix of incompetence and evil, Trump has combined his disastrous implementation of 1930s tariff policies with Stalinesque targeting of political adversaries. The 2020 election wasn’t stolen and speaking the truth is only a crime in countries ruled by tyrants. https://t.co/JwcnsCvhBx
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) April 10, 2025
Even before entering Congress, she made her mark in administration by working in the State Department during George W. Bush’s presidency. Cheney has always been known as a neoconservative who never shied away from sharing her opinions, even when the majority did not agree with her.
In 2016, when Trump’s first term as the President began, Cheney won Wyoming’s at-large congressional seat, following the footsteps of her father. She soon became a force to reckon with in the house. With her orthodox Republican views and pro-business ideology, she quickly climbed the leadership ladder and became the Chair of the House Republican Conference in 2019. This was the third-highest position in the party.
However, she did not know that things were going to go downhill in a couple of years. Though Cheney backed Trump’s agenda early on, she distrusted his foreign policy and criticized his decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria. She also voiced that abandoning Kurdish allies would help the US’ rival states like Russia and Iran.
But the turning point of her political career came in 2021. After the Capitol attack, Cheney blamed Trump for ‘summoning the mob’ and decided to vote for his impeachment. This made her one of the most high-profile Republican opponents of Trumpism.
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Only nine other Republicans had voted against the President. As expected, her stance offended Trump supporters. As the real estate mogul’s influence rose in the party, Cheney was sidelined. In May 2021, House Republicans removed her from leadership in a closed-door vote. The following year, she lost Wyoming’s Republican primary to Harriet Hageman, who was backed by Trump.
But that did not deter Cheney’s stance. Even after losing her seat and derailing her political career, she continues to warn that Trump poses ‘a threat America has never seen before.’ And of course, Trump was not going to be silent about his criticism either. Before the 2024 presidential elections, he took a jibe at Cheney and called her a ‘war hawk.’
The Republican then hit back at him and called him an ‘unstable man’ and a ‘tyrant’ who was harmful to the future of the country. At the time, she wrote on X, “They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
Meanwhile, she also endorsed Kamala Harris as the President in 2024, going against her own party. While the endorsement obviously did not work out, Cheney refuses to waver. She continues to urge people to reject Trump and is one of the few Republicans who have stood up against Trumpism.
