Republicans threaten to defy Trump as his demands threaten GOP majority

As President Donald Trump grapples with Senate Republicans over efforts to pass his agenda, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) says that the commander in chief’s allies live in an “alternative universe.”

This is according to the latest from Punchbowl Media, reporting during the run-up to a meeting scheduled for Wednesday between the president and his party’s Senators. As Punchbowl explains, “If GOP senators tell the president what they’ve been saying to reporters in the halls and discussing privately among themselves, the meeting could be high-stakes for Trump.”

That’s because many Republicans on Capitol Hill feel that Trump has “blindsided” Thune with many recent decisions, not only “derailing their shared legislative agenda but also putting their Senate majority at risk.” What’s more, constant GOP infighting over Trump’s demands that the party advance the SAVE America Act and nuke the filibuster has divided the caucus and increased its ire toward the president.

Trump doesn’t have the votes he needs for the SAVE Act — his much vaunted voter ID law that critics say will disenfranchise millions of voters — and therefore wants Republican Senators to end the filibuster that Democrats can use to block the bill indefinitely. But many Republicans are hesitant to do so, knowing the tables are likely to turn after the November midterms, in which they are expected to lose their majority in one or both Houses.

According to Thune, those in his conference who advocate caving to Trump’s demands reside in an “alternative universe” of social media, where the echochamber lends the impression that their ideas are more popular than they really are. Support for the move, he asserts, is not as one-sided as Trump seems to think. As Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) noted, both Trump and Thune hold “broad support” within the party.

Punchbowl reports that “other GOP leaders are trying to convince Trump that his focus on the filibuster and SAVE isn’t just bad for them — it’s bad for him, too. They want Trump to highlight issues that unite them, such as the tax cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill, and go on offense against Democrats instead of sniping at each other.”

What’s more, the Senate faces more complications heading into its two-week July 4th recess as “Trump has stalled his own nomination of Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence, choosing instead to keep intel neophyte Bill Pulte in the role in an acting capacity. That means a reauthorization of FISA Section 702, which has been dark for two and a half weeks, is going nowhere.”

And “on Iran, Senate GOP hawks have been openly critical of the ongoing negotiations, especially in light of the administration’s decision to lift oil sanctions.” On Tuesday, that tension increased after the Senate rebuked Trump by adopting a non-binding Iran war powers resolution, prompting his rage.

“Four Republican Losers voted with the Dumocrats, and Iran asked my people, ‘what does that all mean?’” Trump ranted on social media in response. “These Senators have just made my job more difficult, but I will get it done, one way or the other, because I always get it done!”

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