Being in charge of a legislative body when the president of your own party isn’t sure you’re the right person for the job can make you feel politically alone. These days, John Thune knows how that feels. There was a conversation between the Senate Majority Leader and someone in his office at the Capitol on a Wednesday afternoon. It was more revealing than almost anything said in public. Trump told reporters outside the Oval Office that Thune “has the votes” to end the Senate filibuster. He also made it sound like Thune wasn’t qualified to be leader at all.
When Thune sat down, he didn’t know about those comments. But his answer, which he gave calmly and without acting, still covered the same ground. He told POLITICO that he does not have the votes to get rid of the filibuster. The SAVE America Act, the fair election law that Trump wants to be passed, is not moving. “Math is math, and arithmetic is arithmetic,” Thune said. It sounds like a normal sentence until you realize he’s trying to explain himself to a president who thinks the Senate rules can be bent for anyone who wants them to be.
Trump has been putting more and more pressure on John Thune for weeks, and it’s getting worse as Republicans try to get a lot of work done before the August break. Thune is working on funding the government, confirming nominees, a bill to put sanctions on Russia, and the start of a spending plan. At the same time, the White House is publicly calling for progress on things that the Senate doesn’t have the votes to deliver. There was a private lunch with senators just hours before Thune’s interview where budget director Russ Vought pushed them. That same morning, Trump put demands on Truth Social. The campaign of pressure never stops, and most people inside the Capitol say it is doing more harm than good.
Due to the absence of Lindsey Graham, this stretch is especially tough. The sudden death of the South Carolina senator a few weeks ago was one of the few people in Trump’s circle who could talk to him honestly about the realities of the Senate and be heard. Thune spoke with a voice that sounded like real loss as he said, “He was a great intermediary, whisperer, whatever you want to call it.” Graham had a relationship where being honest didn’t hurt trust. That doesn’t happen very often, and nobody has quite filled the gap right now. Thune said that talks are already going on about how to make it easier for Senate Republicans and the White House to talk to each other. He met with Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, soon after leaving the room on the day of the interview.
There’s a feeling among Senate Republicans that anger at Trump’s attacks on other Republicans is broadly felt but kept in check. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said that the criticism was just the “typical tug and pull” of Republican politics because he was retiring and would no longer be affected by Trump’s policies. Most of the others have been less vocal. Thune, on the other hand, has taken the heat without moving, doing what a traditional congressional leader does: acting as a lightning rod. The bolts usually come from the other side, which is what makes them different.
Some people close to Trump don’t want to believe Thune, but forcing symbolic votes on the filibuster or the SAVE America Act in the weeks before a very important election would hurt the country more than help it. “You end up basically for the 60 or 90 days heading into an election, fighting among Republicans, which to me seems really counterproductive,” he said. It makes sense as an argument. It also requires Trump to give up some control over his own plans, which is not something he usually does.
It still sounds like Thune thinks this can end well, or at least well enough. He wants members to go home for break having made progress on something real, like a spending bill, a crypto measure, or a government funding extension that is impressive just for being in July. He is in charge of a group of people who are against the budget, against defense, and who aren’t sure if any of it should pass. “I feel like we’re as well positioned as we can be,” he said. The caveat was almost kind: Republicans need to now show how they are different from Democrats instead of from each other.
That sentence from a man who has spent weeks taking public criticism from his own president is hard not to notice how much weight it has. Thune is not scared. He’s not threatening anyone. His only action is to point quietly and steadily at the math.
