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President Trump’s relationship with key Senate Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), is crumbling after repeated clashes over strategy on array of issues. The two sides are splitting further apart as the midterm election nears and GOP lawmakers fear the potential loss of both chambers of Congress.
GOP senators say there has been a major loss of trust between the president and many members of their conference after the White House has repeatedly blindsided Thune and other Republican leaders.
Trump undercut GOP leaders most recently last week when he suddenly ordered Jay Clayton, his nominee to serve as director of national intelligence (DNI), not to show up at his Senate confirmation hearing. The reversal of plan left Thune and other Republicans dumbfounded.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who lost his Senate Republican primary runoff by 27 points after Trump blasted him as “very disloyal” and endorsed his opponent, said Republican colleagues are feeling betrayed by what some of them view as the president’s lack of respect for them as senators and, in most cases, loyal Republicans.
“In my case, there was no real reason given my support for the president’s agenda,” Cornyn said, describing the confusion caused by Trump’s unexpected attacks on him during the Texas GOP primary runoff, even though Cornyn had voted with Trump 99.3 percent of the time.
“When he endorsed my primary opponent, people realized you could never do enough to stop the president from endorsing your primary opponent. I think that destroyed what remained of any kind of trust. I think that changed the playing field in a way where you see a lot more what I would call transactional relationships as opposed to one based on trust,” Cornyn said, describing the deteriorating relationship between Senate Republicans and Trump.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Trump is hurting Senate Republicans’ chances of keeping their majority every time he ambushes them with a surprise announcement or keeps them in the dark about a key development.
“When we’re five months out from a major election [when] we historically have headwinds, you’ve got to be pitch-perfect and you got to execute with precision. We can’t surprise the president and the administration cannot surprise us. Every time we do that between now and November, we’re diminishing our chances of holding our majorities,” Tillis said.
He cited the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) extension and the annual defense authorization bill as must-pass bills that are now in limbo.
Republican senators are growing more and more frustrated over Trump’s unrelenting calls to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require people to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and to show photo ID when voting, despite the fact that it’s already failed five times on the floor.
Trump surprised Republicans again when he posted on social media Wednesday morning that he would not sign an extension of FISA’s enhanced surveillance authorities unless the SAVE America Act is attached to it — something that is a complete non-starter with Republicans.
Cornyn on Friday criticized Trump for making unrealistic demands related to FISA that could risk national security and warned that failing to work constructively with GOP lawmakers is “accelerating his lame-duck status.”
“Here’s where things go off the rails: When the president fails to acknowledge some hills simply can’t be held and charges up anyway. That’s what happened in the fight over Bill Pulte, wiretapping and the SAVE America Act. His no-win standoff with his Senate GOP risks more than national security. It’s accelerating his lame-duck status,” Cornyn posted on X, the social media platform.
Democrats have refused to pass the FISA reauthorization as long as Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — whom they’ve accused of weaponizing mortgage records — is serving as acting DNI.
Trump left Thune and other key Republican senators twisting in the wind last week by ignoring their requests for a briefing on the administration’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran, leaving them unprepared to answer criticism of the deal.
Thune told reporters on Tuesday that he expected to get a briefing later in the week on the details of the deal with Iran, but that didn’t come before the White House released the MOU, leaving Senate Republicans scrambling to interpret it themselves.
The majority leader said “we’re trying to get” the text of the memorandum, yet many GOP senators — except some of Trump’s closest allies who participated in a call with the White House — were left in the dark.
Now Republican senators are facing questions about why the White House is so out of step with their leadership, and they are struggling to come up with answers.
When asked why Trump had derailed Clayton’s hearing to serve as DNI, which Thune had hoped would clear the way for a speedy confirmation vote and a follow-up vote on a bill to extend FISA’s lapsed authorizations, Thune could only mutter: “Good question.”
“I’ve never been asked to slow a nomination down before,” he said with an uncomfortable laugh when asked when Clayton’s nomination would move or why Trump slowed it down.
A senior Republican aide said GOP senators are becoming numb to what any of them view as the president’s irrational moves — such as the decision to block Clayton or to push for $1 billion in taxpayer money for the new White House ballroom.
“This is par for the course. Before, members might be appalled, then it becomes that members are frustrated. Now, it’s members are resigned to these type of decisions that are inexplicable, there’s not a good explanation,” the aide said of Trump’s sudden opposition to moving Clayton’s nomination and then doubling down on attaching the SAVE America Act to the FISA bill.
“This is entirely an unforced error,” the source said.
Last week’s snubs came after the Trump administration surprised GOP senators by floating the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund just as they were prepared to move forward on a $70 billion budget reconciliation bill.
That move provoked a revolt when GOP senators then refused to debate the reconciliation bill before Memorial Day, as Thune had planned, because they didn’t want to vote on politically dangerous amendments to scrap the weaponization fund while Attorney General Todd Blanche said the idea was still on the table.
Last month’s meeting between Blanche and Senate Republicans in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room turned into what one senator described as a “screaming-fest.”
The tensions have cooled since then between Blanche and Republican senators, but he still faces a rocky path to getting confirmed as attorney general for a longer term.
Just one Republican “no” vote on the Judiciary Committee would be enough to sink him.
He also may have a challenge getting enough support on the Senate floor from Republicans such as Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who are undecided on how to vote.
And Trump is starting to get more pushback from unexpected corners of the Senate GOP conference in recent days.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who is usually in lockstep with Trump, raised eyebrows on Wednesday when he balked at Trump’s call on social media to cancel Clayton’s confirmation hearing.
Cotton initially said he would still go forward with the hearing despite Trump’s early morning rant on social media.
Cotton then postponed the hearing when it became clear that Clayton would not show up, calling Trump’s interference “regrettable.”
The Arkansas senator, who is the third-ranking member of the GOP leaders as Senate Republican conference chair, went on Fox News on Thursday to vent his concerns over Trump’s peace deal with Iran.
Her warned that unfreezing tens of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and lifting sanctions on Iranian oil exports could backfire on U.S. national security interests.
“We know that this terrorist revolutionary regime is not going to spend that money on daycares or on hospitals. They’re going to use it to rebuild their drone stockpiles, their missiles, to fund Hamas and to fund Hezbollah,” he said of Iran’s leadership.
On Friday, when Hezbollah forces stuck an Israeli tank in Southern Lebanon, killing for Israeli soldiers, Cotton wryly commented on social media: “Apparently no one informed Hezbollah of the ‘ceasefire.’”
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Bill Pulte Donald Trump Jay Clayton John Cornyn John Thune Thom TillisCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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