Ties between President Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., are being tested, as some Senate Republicans say the president’s unpredictable actions are derailing their shared agenda.
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Four Senate Republicans joined with Democrats today to narrowly advance a war powers resolution to end U.S. hostilities with Iran. We’ll hear more on the vote elsewhere in the program. It is just the latest example of tension between President Trump and Senate Republicans. And as NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas explains, some lawmakers fear the conflict risks derailing their shared agenda.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Senate Majority Leader John Thune thought he had a plan. Trump wanted a partisan attack dog as acting director of national intelligence. Democrats and some Republicans were appalled by his pick, Bill Pulte, and threatened to hold up renewing a key spy tool until he was yanked. Thune pressed Trump for a more palatable, permanent director so the Senate could confirm him before Pulte took the reins.
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JOHN THUNE: The confirmation hearing will happen tomorrow in Intelligence Committee. We will take him up as soon as we can.
GRINGLAS: That was Thune last Wednesday night on Fox News. Then, in a 4 a.m. post, Trump blew up that plan, writing he wouldn’t sign legislation to reauthorize the spy tool without the Save America Act, the strict voter ID law he wants. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska compared Trump’s swerve to a moose startling a pack of sled dogs.
LISA MURKOWSKI: So if some big distraction like a moose comes through these trees, and you got half the team going over here and half the team going over here, it is chaos. And then what that musher has to do is he’s got to stop and spend all of his time untangling this mess.
GRINGLAS: Thune has been untangling a lot of mess lately, as Trump tries to strong-arm or sidestep Congress. A last-ditch effort by Trump to pass the Save America Act nearly derailed a vote on one of Trump’s other top priorities – funding for immigration enforcement. And Trump’s support for a fund that could have compensated January 6 rioters resulted in that key spy tool lapsing in the first place.
JOHN KENNEDY: He’s got two speeds – uninterested and the speed of light. And on the things that are important to him, he moves at the speed of light.
GRINGLAS: That’s Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who talks to Trump regularly. Thune, though, is often in the position of having to give the president a reality check. He’s been clear there aren’t enough votes to pass the Save America Act – it’s failed several times already – or to dismantle the filibuster to muscle it through, as Trump’s demanding. Even after this latest clash, Trump wrote that anyone who supports the filibuster is a fool. Kennedy says Trump’s friction with the majority leader isn’t personal.
KENNEDY: If you don’t like John Thune, you don’t like golden retrievers.
GRINGLAS: Most Senate Republicans agree with Thune, except a few like Utah Senator Mike Lee, who says the Save America Act can pass. Former GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia says his old pal Thune is just right for this moment. Sure, Thune’s no hammer, like some of his predecessors, Chambliss says, but he’s levelheaded and his defense of the filibuster is about preserving the Senate’s consensus-driven nature.
SAXBY CHAMBLISS: He feels very strongly that the institution of the United States Senate matters. And we get the best pieces of legislation when you have input by Republican and Democrat.
GRINGLAS: Chambliss says Thune knows the difficult position he’s in.
CHAMBLISS: He used to be a guy who would roll with every punch. Right now, every time he twitches, I can see anxiety. But thank goodness he’s there.
GRINGLAS: Trump says without the Save America Act, the Republican Party will never win another election. But the president himself has complicated his party’s majority in 2026 by helping push out incumbents he says haven’t been loyal enough. And some Republicans see Trump’s fixation on the 2020 election imperiling an agenda that could help Republicans this fall. I asked Thune recently if he shares that fear.
THUNE: I think our path to keeping the majority in the Senate is going to be focused on the issues that the American people are most concerned about. And those tend to be kitchen table, pocketbook issues. Is my community safe? Is my country safe?
GRINGLAS: But is it harder to focus on that now? I asked. I’m doing my best to stay focused, Thune shot back as he disappeared into his office. Sam Gringlas, NPR News, Washington.
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