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President Trump and Senate Republicans are looking to get on the same page after battling over an array of disagreements, from the extension of enhanced surveillance authorities and the war with Iran to Trump’s desire to abolish the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act.
June was a rocky month for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) after he was blindsided by Trump’s refusal to allow Jay Clayton, nominated to serve as director of national intelligence, to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Thune was rocked a second time by Trump’s refusal to sign an important housing affordability bill, though that became law without his signature.
Now Thune is looking to unify his conference around Trump’s priorities, such as passage of the annual defense authorization bill and confirmation of Todd Blanche to head the Justice Department.
Republicans lost a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) died of a “brief and sudden illness” Saturday night, but Thune will be able to quickly appoint replacements to fill the vacancies Graham left on several panels.
More problematic for Thune, Graham served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and his sudden death poses an obstacle to immediately working on another budget reconciliation package, which Trump has demanded from Congress.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a staunch Trump ally, is in line to take over as Budget Committee chairman.
Thune, who spent time with Trump in South Dakota over the July 4 recess to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, is hoping to mend fences with the president by planning a “blitz” to confirm as many of his nominees as possible this work period.
But Republican strategists and aides warn of simmering tensions in their relationship over Trump’s demands to pass the SAVE America Act, to advance a third budget reconciliation package and to pass legislation restricting birthright citizenship.
“Trump is the one who’s putting the pressure on Senate Republicans to move in his direction so the more Trump applies the pressure, the more conflict there is — the more pushback there is,” said Ron Bonjean, a GOP strategist and former Senate leadership aide.
“It feels as if things have calmed down for a little bit for right now because tensions were really high but they could return to being very tense shortly,” he added. “It really depends on where Trump is. He’s not letting the SAVE [America] Act go.
“He was actually on Capitol Hill putting pressure on Senate Republicans. That was pretty high-level in terms of how much concentration there was,” Bonjean added, referring to a heated meeting Trump held with senators in Washington just before the Senate left town for a two-week recess.
Trump on Friday again declared he would not sign the bipartisan housing affordability bill passed by the Senate and House — something that was a top Thune priority — because he’s angry Congress hasn’t passed the SAVE America Act.
“THE SAVE AMERICA ACT’S non-passage is CRAZY, and a serious threat to any politician who votes against it!” Trump warned.
Trump has repeatedly pushed Thune to abolish the Senate filibuster to pass the election reform bill with a simple majority in the upper chamber, but Thune has pushed back, insisting each time there aren’t enough GOP votes to change the rules.
A Republican strategist who requested anonymity urged Thune to set up a meeting with Trump at the White House this week to discuss a plan for the Senate schedule before the August recess that would include floor time for Trump’s priorities, such as the SAVE America Act and legislation to limit birthright citizenship in response to a recent Supreme Court ruling.
“SAVE will be a huge issue,” said the strategist, who noted that much of the Senate’s July calendar has been set aside for the National Defense Authorization Act and confirming Trump’s nominees, including Blanche and Keith Sonderling, the president’s pick to head the Labor Department.
The strategist said Thune should follow up with Trump and “give him some sort of proposal.”
“If you’re John Thune, Trump is not lost for him. This is not a burned bridge. [Speaker] Mike Johnson does this. He goes to the president and says, ‘Here’s what you want, here’s what I can do,’” the strategist said.
“Trump’s not going to stop caring about the SAVE America Act,” the strategist added.
Trump staunchest allies want Thune and Johnson (R-La.) to schedule July or September debate time and votes on both the SAVE America Act and the Birthright Citizenship Act, which would redefine the 14th Amendment to deny automatic citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants or visitors temporarily in the United States.
Thune filed cloture on the defense authorization bill just before the Senate adjourned for the July 4 recess.
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday will hold its long-delayed confirmation hearing of Clayton to oversee the nation’s intelligence services.
Thune is hoping that once Clayton is confirmed, it will open the way for the Senate to pass a long-term extension of enhanced surveillance authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expired on June 12.
Trump blew up a potential deal to extend the FISA powers when he told Clayton to skip his original confirmation hearing that was scheduled for June 17, keeping FISA’s enhanced surveillance program “dark,” according to Thune, for several weeks.
The president has insisted on linking the FISA extension to the passage of the SAVE America Act.
“I’m against FISA if it doesn’t come with The Save America Act (Full version!) firmly attached to it,” he declared on June 14.
That’s a knot that Thune will have to untangle this month, among others.
Another major disagreement between Trump and Thune is whether to push a third budget reconciliation package to pass more money for the Pentagon, which is running low on munitions due to the months-long conflict with Iran.
Thune has urged colleagues to try to move $67.1 billion in emergency defense spending requested by the Trump administration through the regular appropriations process.
Trump renewed his call to pass $350 billion for the Pentagon and the SAVE America Act through the budget reconciliation process on Tuesday.
“I am calling on House and Senate Leadership to make this their Number One Priority, and ensure that 350 Billion Dollars in Recon 3.0 moves out of the Budget Committee as soon as Congress is back in session,” he posted on Truth Social.
“The SAVE AMERICA ACT, which everyone is asking for, paired with the full funding of our Great Department of War, can be passed very quickly, ensuring that the United States of America stays FREE for Generations to come,” he argued.
But Thune and his allies have pointed out that Republicans have twice tried to pass the SAVE America Act as an amendment to the second budget reconciliation package and it failed both times.
Trump’s preferred version of the bill, which would restrict mail-in voting, ban transgender athletes from women’s sports and prohibit gender reassignment surgery for minors didn’t even get a simple majority after four GOP senators voted against it.
The Senate has already voted five times on the SAVE America Act or components of it.
The simmering tensions between Trump and Thune over a prospective budget reconciliation package and the voting reform legislation has Republican insiders warning that another fight could explode this month.
“They’re trying to get on the same page but Trump has made it very clear that he doesn’t need Congress except for the SAVE Act, to fund the Iran war and to get his nominees through. I think we’ll end up returning to some tensions,” he said.
“When you feel things are lightening up that’s when you feel like the page is going to turn back to what we experienced a couple weeks ago,” he said.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Donald Trump Jay Clayton John Thune Lindsey Graham Mike Johnson Ron Bonjean Ron Johnson Todd BlancheCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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