Trump was asked whether he wants John Thune to keep his job as Senate Majority Leader when Republicans choose their next leader. He did not say yes. Punchbowl News reported this morning on “warning signs” emerging from the disconnect between Trump and Senate Republicans as they left for a five-week recess. “That’s probably to be expected,” Thune said of Trump’s non-answer, which is the statement of a man who has been managing a president who demands things the Senate cannot deliver, and who is now declining to publicly back him.
The list of things Trump demanded and the Senate could not deliver is specific. Trump pushed Thune to gut the filibuster. Thune said he did not have the votes. Trump pushed Thune to pass the SAVE America Act. Republicans scrapped the budget resolution that would have launched a reconciliation package carrying the SAVE Act’s voter ID and election integrity provisions. A standalone voter ID bill was then brought to the floor and fell short of 60 votes. Thune described Trump’s demands as “a reality I have to deal with,” which is the diplomatic phrasing for “I was asked to do things the chamber cannot do.”
The deeper Republican fear, per Punchbowl News, is November. Republican senators defending thin margins in competitive states are already adjusting their public positioning. The Senate holds a majority that several incumbents privately believe could flip in a midterm environment where Trump’s Iran war approval sits at 28 percent and consumer prices remain elevated from tariffs. Thune’s job is to manage that environment. Trump’s job, as the president understands it, is to demand that Thune deliver things the environment makes impossible. The gap between those two jobs is the “warning signs” Punchbowl News is describing.
The Senate left for five weeks. The SAVE Act is dead. Trump declined to endorse his own Majority Leader. Thune said it was probably to be expected.
When the president won’t say he backs his Senate Majority Leader and the Senate’s two major legislative priorities just died, what exactly is the majority for?
Sources
Raw Story: ‘Warning signs’ emerge for GOP after Trump’s telling answer on John Thune’s future
