Multiple Republican senators are openly defying Donald Trump by stating that they want Senate Majority Leader John Thune to serve another term.
The 80-year-old president declined to offer an endorsement of Thune in an interview with PunchBowl News, telling Jake Sherman: “I don’t want to get into that necessarily.”
Trump then cited two major sticking points that he and the South Dakota Republican have been fighting over for several months—the president’s demands to eliminate the Senate filibuster in order to get his SAVE America Act passed. Thune has had to repeatedly tell Trump there are not enough votes in the upper chamber to be able to do either of these things.
GOP senators have started to come forward to say they want Thune to serve another term, even if Trump backs another candidate, with the Senate majority leader’s commitment to keeping the 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber cited as a key reason.
“There’s a lot of respect for John Thune. There’s a lot of recognition of how he works and how difficult his job is and a belief that he’s doing it really well under difficult circumstances,” Sen. Jerry Moran told The Hill.
The Kansas Republican added that while Republican senators have bent the knee to Trump on multiple issues, they would draw the line at any attempt to remove Thune.
“I also think there are some things where the Senate seems willing to accede their privileges, but I think who our leader is, there’s a real sense that that belongs to us,” he said.
Even MAGA Sen. Rick Scott, who supports eliminating the filibuster and backs Trump’s SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and largely eliminate mail-in voting in elections, appears to be on Thune’s side.
“It’s a hard job, it’s really a hard job,” the Florida Republican said. “I’m sure if I were president of the United States, I would be frustrated if everything I wanted didn’t get done. So that’s probably pretty common.”
Sen. John Kennedy also rallied behind Thune, saying that he is not aware of any “movements” to replace him as Senate majority leader.
“I think the president and John like each other. I think these are tough issues and they obviously disagree over things like the filibuster,” the Louisiana Republican said.
Speaking to The Hill, Thune said that Trump withholding his endorsement of him is “probably to be expected” given how much they have clashed over the filibuster and the SAVE America Act. Thune said he still believes that the GOP has done plenty in getting Trump’s agenda passed.
“I think we’ve had a really productive run. There are a couple things I said right from the very beginning are going to be difficult if not impossible—frankly more impossible—to do,” he said. “That’s the reality I have to deal with.”
Multiple Republicans are against scrapping the filibuster, fearing it would ultimately benefit Democrats, who could be in control of the Senate next year.
While speaking to Punchbowl News, Trump suggested the Democrats will try to scrap it if they regain control of the upper chamber following the midterm elections.
“And I tell you what, if they get it in, I will be the last Republican president,” he said.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
