Trump and Thune's Widening Rift Threatens to Undercut GOP Ahead of Midterms
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has gone as long as two weeks without hearing directly from President Trump, learning about the latest twist in the president's agenda from Truth Social or the news, the same way everyone else does. That's a stark contrast to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who reportedly struggles to get Trump off the phone. The disconnect between Trump and Thune has become impossible to ignore inside the Capitol, even as both men lead a party trying to defend narrow majorities in an already difficult midterm environment.
Asked directly about how often he speaks with the president lately, Thune offered a simple, almost clipped answer: "With me, it's more on an as-needed basis."
From Working Relationship to Public FrictionIt wasn't always this tense. Early in Trump's second term, the two were in far more frequent contact, and Trump routinely praised Thune's leadership as the Senate GOP leader worked to push the president's agenda through. Thune, for his part, often held his tongue publicly even when he privately disagreed, whether the issue was an inflammatory social media post or a policy like sweeping tariffs that hurt South Dakota's economy. Behind closed doors, though, Thune has reportedly always taken a more direct approach than most Senate Republicans, bluntly telling Trump what can and can't realistically pass, rather than simply following orders regardless of feasibility.
That dynamic has curdled into open friction. Trump has repeatedly used his social media platform to needle Thune's handling of the chamber, at one point rallying MAGA-aligned Republicans to pressure Thune into passing the "SAVE America Act," a voting-restrictions bill the Senate had already rejected. He's also blindsided Thune on multiple occasions, from abruptly canceling a signing ceremony for a housing affordability bill Republicans wanted to tout ahead of the midterms, to derailing efforts to renew surveillance authorities, to briefly sidelining his own director of national intelligence nominee. Most recently, the president's push for a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund complicated Senate plans to quickly approve tens of billions in immigration enforcement funding, and continues to cause headaches for the broader GOP agenda.
A Fractured Conference, Not Just Two MenThe result, as CNN reporting describes it, is something closer to a circular firing squad than a unified party: roughly a dozen MAGA-aligned senators standing squarely behind Trump, while most other Senate Republicans remain in Thune's corner. Republican senators openly acknowledge the toll this is taking. "I would say we're all longing for a relationship with the White House where we work more in harmony," said Utah Senator John Curtis. West Virginia Senator Jim Justice put it more bluntly, warning that continued infighting risks costing Republicans seats, which would ultimately hurt Trump's own agenda too. "There's no point in going round and round and round," Justice said.
The death of Senator Lindsey Graham in July removed a figure many GOP senators describe as a crucial bridge between Trump and Thune, a close golf partner of the president's and a close friend of the majority leader's alike. One senator lamented the loss of that connective tissue directly: "We need to be talking up the wins, talking about how crazy Democrats are, and instead we are knifing each other."
The Immediate Flashpoint: A Packed Week Before RecessThe tension is coming to a head as the Senate heads into a five-week August recess. Trump wants his "SAVE America Act" passed before senators leave, even though the vote would almost certainly fail and would eat into floor time needed for other priorities, including Graham's Russia sanctions bill and a stopgap government funding measure to avert a shutdown past September 30.
The bigger complication is Trump's push to move his broader agenda, including funding tied to Iran and election-related restrictions, through the budget reconciliation process, which would let Republicans bypass the filibuster and pass legislation with a simple majority along party lines. The problem, according to Thune, is that Senate Republicans remain sharply divided on what such a package should even contain, meaning it doesn't currently have the votes to pass regardless of the process used. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Budget Director Russ Vought have been pressing senators to advance a budget resolution this week, but according to sources in the room, GOP senators pushed back hard on those demands during a closed-door lunch with Vought.
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski was blunt about the political risk of forcing a marathon "vote-a-rama" on divisive issues right before an election. "I'm not sure that a late-night vote-a-rama with a lot of political hot buttons is what a lot of members who are up this year are really looking forward to," she said. "So, I question the political wisdom as well." Meanwhile, roughly a dozen Trump-aligned senators are reportedly prepared to force a vote that would block the Senate from adjourning for its summer break, with Budget Committee Chairman Ron Johnson warning that leaving without acting on Trump's demands would be "an enormous mistake" that supporters "wouldn't take kindly to."
The Filibuster Fight Underneath It AllMuch of the underlying strain traces back to Trump's repeated demands that the Senate eliminate the filibuster, the 60-vote threshold Thune has firmly refused to touch. Thune argues Republicans will eventually need that same tool to block Democratic legislation whenever they're back in the minority, and he says the numbers simply aren't there regardless. "It's just a fact, we're not going to nuke the filibuster," he has said. Trump's decision earlier this year to back a primary challenge against Senator John Cornyn in Texas added another layer of tension, particularly since Cornyn's seat is now considered more vulnerable to flipping given Trump's backing of Ken Paxton as the nominee instead.
Oklahoma Senator James Lankford chalked some of Trump's frustration up to his instincts as a longtime business executive unused to legislative pace. "He's not content with anything," Lankford said. "He's always pushing." But he also acknowledged the structural mismatch at the heart of the standoff: "The president wants to be able to move fast like an executive can move. But we're a legislative branch, we don't move that fast."
Is Thune Being Set Up to Take the Blame?Perhaps the most pointed moment in the standoff came when Trump was asked directly whether he still considers Thune the right man for the job. Rather than offering support, Trump demurred: "Well, we're going to find out and I'll let you know." Thune's response was equally pointed: "He doesn't vote in our elections." The White House declined to comment further on the relationship, instead pointing back to Trump's previous public criticism of the Senate leader.
Many of Thune's allies privately believe the president may be positioning him as a scapegoat if Democrats perform well in the midterms and retake the Senate. When CNN asked Thune directly whether he thought that was Trump's intention, he offered only a shrug: "I don't know."
Sources