WASHINGTON — A private lunch between President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans took a dramatic turn Wednesday when Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana squared off with the president over the Iran war — an encounter that reportedly included raised voices, personal insults, and a demand to sit down.
The confrontation began after Trump questioned how any senator could have voted for a war powers resolution the day before — a measure aimed at blocking further U.S. military action against Iran. Cassidy was one of four Republicans who supported it, and he wasn’t about to stay quiet.
“Would you really like to know?” Cassidy asked the president, according to his own account shared with reporters following the meeting.
Cassidy said he stood up and told Trump directly: “You have not told the American people what’s going on. This is supposed to last four weeks. It’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved.”
From there, things got worse. When Cassidy told Trump he planned to keep voting for war powers resolutions until Congress received a proper briefing on developments in Iran, the senator said the president “did not particularly care for my comments” and “raised his voice.”
According to a person with knowledge of the private meeting who spoke anonymously, Trump repeatedly told Cassidy to sit down and at one point called the senator a “lunatic.”
Cassidy admitted he lost his temper in return — something he said was “not appropriate” — but he didn’t back down.
“I again matched his tone and volume,” Cassidy told reporters. “And so I sat down and tried to de-escalate. I guess my point is, though, that the American people need to know more than we’re being told.”
The confrontation was a striking departure from how most congressional Republicans have behaved during Trump’s second term. While many have avoided criticizing the president publicly — even when frustrated behind closed doors — Cassidy’s willingness to confront Trump face-to-face drew attention across Capitol Hill.
The exchange also reflected growing anxiety among Republican lawmakers about their slim congressional majorities heading into this year’s elections, especially amid the ongoing turmoil surrounding the Iran conflict.
There’s also a personal history at play. Trump effectively ended Cassidy’s political career by endorsing a Republican rival in Louisiana’s GOP primary. Last month, Cassidy became the first sitting senator in 14 years to lose a primary — a defeat driven largely by his vote to convict Trump during the impeachment trial related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Cassidy said Trump brought up his primary loss during their argument, describing the president’s comments as part of “whatever comes to mind as to demean another person.”
Before losing his primary, Cassidy had largely tried to stay in Trump’s good graces by supporting his policies and nominees. Since the loss, with no more Republican primary voters to answer to, he has taken a noticeably harder line.
“It does not appear, although I don’t know for sure, that the course of (the Iran war) is going the way that we were told,” Cassidy said. “And so I make no apologies for standing up to the president, if you will, trying to demand that more information be shared with the Senate, and more information be shared with the American people.”
Cassidy noted that his Republican colleagues didn’t exactly rush to his defense while Trump was in the room — though he said they barely had the chance.
“The president just kind of talked and talked and talked and talked and talked,” Cassidy said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Cassidy’s version of events. Some Republican senators tried to downplay what happened.
“Y’all act like no one ever yelled at each other,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican and former college football coach, compared the exchange to a locker room speech, calling it “halftime talk” given the circumstances of Cassidy’s recent defeat. “Probably needed to be said, end of the day,” Tuberville said. “I think they got a lot of — both of them — got a lot off their chests.”
Others offered more pointed commentary. The lunch had been billed as an opportunity for Trump and Senate Republicans to align on messaging.
“That was quite a unity message,” said Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who himself lost a primary to a Trump-backed challenger just weeks after Cassidy’s defeat.
When a reporter asked if he was being sarcastic, Cornyn stepped into an elevator and let the doors close behind him.
