WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s relationship with Senate Majority Leader John Thune has reached a point of open conflict, as the South Dakota Republican repeatedly tells the president that his top legislative priorities cannot pass the narrowly divided Senate.
The friction came to a head Wednesday when Trump issued a social-media post that entangled the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — a national security priority — with his stalled voter-ID bill. “To add a slight bit of intrigue but, for the Good of the Nation, and the People of our Country, I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it,” Trump wrote.
The move disrupted bipartisan talks to confirm Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, and blocked Trump ally Bill Pulte from taking the job in an acting capacity. Pulte’s potential appointment had already drawn sharp opposition from lawmakers, who said he lacked national-security experience and expressed concern he would politicize the position — a matter MSI previously covered in detail this month.
Thune, according to people familiar with the dynamic, has had to deliver a series of unwelcome messages to the president. Before Republicans agreed to pass a $70 billion border-security package this month, Senate Republicans rejected funding for a Trump White House ballroom and forced the administration to drop a $1.8 billion fund that could have been used to compensate Trump’s political allies — episodes that MSI has tracked across multiple prior articles throughout the spring.
A person close to the president said Trump has been angered by being told “no” repeatedly by Thune instead of “no, let me try.” A defender of Thune countered that Trump simply has not succeeded in winning over the senators needed to pass the SAVE Act.
Thune — whose 53-47 Republican majority falls short of the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation under Senate rules — has tried to avoid a war of words. When a reporter asked him this week if it was tough to keep telling the president “no,” Thune said their relationship was fine. “It isn’t every circumstance where the answer is ‘yes,’” he added.
The core dispute centers on the SAVE America Act, which would mandate proof of citizenship to register and voter ID to vote. Trump has called passing the bill critical to Republican success in the midterms, both by energizing the GOP base and by reducing what he has described as widespread illegal voting. While there is no evidence of any fraud affecting election outcomes, opinion polls show broad public support for tighter voter-ID rules.
Republicans in test votes have cobbled together a narrow majority for tougher voting rules but have come nowhere close to the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Trump and allies have pressed Thune to eliminate the filibuster, a step that would require only 51 votes, but enough Republican senators are on record opposing any changes that the move appears unviable.
Thune has received strong backing from GOP colleagues. Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) said Thune is “doing nothing more and nothing less than telling the president the truth.” He added: “The problem is the president doesn’t like hearing that when it frustrates what he wants to do.”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R., S.D.) called Thune “the stable force” in the Capitol and in Washington. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) laughed when asked if Trump was making Thune’s job harder. “Obviously, the president’s skill set is to vocalize everything, and Sen. Thune’s skill set is more quietly engaging,” she said. “I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.) likened Thune to a lovable golden retriever and Trump to the tough-talking sales trainer in the movie “Glengarry Glen Ross.” He said he supports the SAVE Act and believes Thune would deliver the votes if he could. “I mean, I want a Porsche for my birthday,” Kennedy said. “I’m not going to get it.”
The tension has been visible in other ways. Last week, Trump summoned House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) to the White House to discuss the fight over Pulte and the lapsed surveillance law. Thune was not invited.
Conservative outside groups have pressured Thune more directly. Cleta Mitchell, who runs a group lobbying for stricter voter-eligibility laws, said Thune just “shrugs” and says the votes aren’t there. “There is just no sense from him whatsoever that he is even trying,” Mitchell said. Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, said a request for member feedback on Thune drew responses of “resign” and “retire” from readers.
Trump’s White House, asked for comment on the relationship, pointed to passage of the GOP tax law last year and the border-security funding earlier this month — both achieved through a special budget procedure that bypassed the 60-vote threshold. “We look forward to continuing these close relationships and fulfilling President Trump’s priorities that Americans elected him to enact,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson.
Thune likes to say the problem in the Senate is math. Asked whether the president is making his job harder, Kennedy put it differently: “That’s the president, he’s always selling, and he wants the SAVE Act, and he wants Bill Pulte. … And you may agree with him, you may disagree with him, but that’s what he wants.”