WASHINGTON (AP) — The bond between President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans came dangerously close to breaking this week, as the president disrupted their efforts to confirm one of his own nominees and threatened to withhold his signature from a key surveillance law unless lawmakers agree to new conditions.
A late-night social media post from Trump on Wednesday announced he was putting the brakes on Jay Clayton’s nomination for national intelligence director — a bombshell that landed just hours before Clayton’s confirmation hearing was set to begin. The move deepened an already-fraying relationship between the White House and the Senate. Later that same day, Republican senators who had largely stayed quiet about the president’s handling of the Iran conflict broke their silence with pointed criticism of the deal he struck to end it.
“This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., wrote in a post on X.
The open hostility marks a dramatic shift from just a year ago, when Senate Republicans and Trump worked hand-in-hand to push through his sweeping package of tax and spending cuts. Back then, Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill rarely — if ever — spoke a word against the president, and they were counting on that legislative victory to fuel their midterm campaigns.
Now, with November drawing closer and Republicans scrambling to hold onto their congressional majorities, Trump has been throwing curveballs at Congress with unexpected demands and reversals, pushing several Republican senators to publicly rebuke him for the first time.
“I think somebody’s not dialing the president into the complexities of what he’s done here,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Wednesday following the postponement of Clayton’s confirmation. “I mean, my God.”
The unraveling of what once appeared to be a rock-solid alliance between the executive and legislative branches also extends to policy. Trump seems to have largely set aside the broader Republican legislative agenda, instead zeroing in almost exclusively on his push for voting legislation that would require proof of citizenship — a measure that has virtually no path to passage. Meanwhile, he has asked Congress to fund portions of a White House ballroom renovation, accept a temporary intelligence director that few of them support, and hand over their authority on matters related to the Iran conflict.
The widening divide has brought much of the Senate’s work to a standstill and put Republican incumbents on the defensive heading into the election. It has also placed significant pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has been candid with Trump about the limits of what he can accomplish in the Senate.
Trump has leaned hard on Thune to eliminate the filibuster and force through the proof-of-citizenship bill, known as the SAVE America Act. Thune, R-S.D., has told the president both publicly and behind closed doors that the votes simply aren’t there for either move. Trump has continued pushing anyway.
In a social media post Thursday, Trump warned he would be “the last Republican president” if the voting bill fails to pass.
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Senate, must not let this ‘carnage’ happen,” Trump wrote. “They will go down on the wrong side of History, as will all Republicans who just stood by and watched.”
Despite the pressure, Trump has stopped short of attacking Thune personally — a contrast to his treatment of Thune’s predecessor, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whom Trump once called a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.”
The two men speak regularly, even when Thune is delivering news the president doesn’t want to hear. As Trump continued pushing for the voting bill, Thune carved out weeks of Senate floor time to consider it — a gesture meant to signal the chamber’s support even in the absence of the necessary votes.
Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, said he has never heard the president say anything critical about Thune.
“It’s a difficult position,” Schmitt said of Thune’s role. “I think they have a good working relationship.”
One of Thune’s closest allies, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, described the majority leader as the “right person at the right time.”
“In the Capitol today, he is the stable force,” Rounds said. “In Washington, D.C., today, he is the stable force.”
Despite the friction, there were no clear signs of an outright rebellion within the Republican conference.
Thune “has managed it better than anyone else could manage it,” said Cassidy, who has grown into a more frequent Trump critic after losing a primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger.
Criticism of the president has occasionally come even from some of his closest Senate supporters — particularly over his proposed $1.776 billion settlement fund for political allies and his selection of Bill Pulte, who has no known background in intelligence, as acting intelligence director.
But the tensions with Trump have also stirred new friction within the Republican caucus itself. Several senators used a private conference lunch this week to call out Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, for running an online campaign to abolish the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act, arguing he was sowing division within the party during an election year.
Some Senate Republicans, however, have made clear they have no intention of distancing themselves from the president. As colleagues criticized Trump’s Iran agreement this week, first-term Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, took to social media in vigorous defense of it.
“Let’s get the Nobel Peace Prize ready!” Moreno posted on X.
Still, Trump has far fewer loyal Senate allies now than he did when the tax and spending package narrowly cleared Congress a year ago — partly because he helped eliminate some of his most dependable supporters himself.
Both Cassidy and Texas Sen. John Cornyn lost their primaries last month after Trump threw his support behind their opponents. Tillis had already announced he wouldn’t seek reelection after Trump repeatedly targeted him on social media. All three have since become regular critics of the president.
Shortly after his primary defeat, Cornyn shared a fable on social media about a frog and a scorpion. In the story, the scorpion convinces the frog to carry it across a river, then stings the frog mid-crossing, sealing both their fates.
“The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence,” Cornyn’s post read. “To which the scorpion replies: ‘I am sorry, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s my character.’”
