Hope they have Maalox and Pepto-Bismol on hand when President visits Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans over lunch.
Senate GOP Steering Committee Chairman and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., invited Trump for the luncheon Wednesday. Some Senate Republicans may wonder if theyre the ones on the menu. Both Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are out after the president refused to endorse them and they lost their primaries. Trump has also sparred with Senate Majority Leader , R-S.D., exasperated that he cant execute his legislative agenda.
Scott is a close ally of the president. He lost to Thune and Cornyn in the race to become majority leader in late 2024. In fact, Scott didnt even request a blessing from the top Senate GOP leadership team to invite the president.
Scotts teamed up with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, advocating that the Senate . It requires proof of citizenship to vote. This advocacy is driving Thune and other members of the GOP brass batty since the bill failed twice. Scott and Lee want the Senate to get onto the SAVE America Act and stay on it until the measure passes. But few understand how exhaustion somehow conjures a majority of senators to suddenly support the bill.
Moreover, the president demands that they . If the SAVE America Act doesnt have the necessary votes to pass, theres no way it commands 60 yeas to break a filibuster.
Simple solution, right?
Not really. Thune has said repeatedly that there arent the votes to alter the filibuster, either.
Its about the math.
So expect some intense discussions Wednesday over what the president wants the Senate to do. Thune has tried to tell the president repeatedly what the Senate is capable of, based on the various parliamentary equations.
And theres fear among Republicans that the president may attempt to sow discord about the outcomes if Democrats flip the House and/or Senate â and Republicans never passed the SAVE America Act.
Trump sports plenty of supporters in the Senate, but hes frustrated Senate Republicans by repeatedly yanking the legislative rug out from under his own party for weeks now.Â
The Senate was on the precipice of beginning a “vote-a-rama” to finally pass in May. Then the administration announced its weaponization fund. A meeting between Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and GOP senators devolved into pointed conversations. Blanche continued to defend the fund. Some Republicans threatened their own amendments during the vote-a-rama to either block the fund or shield themselves from political fallout.
Thune pulled the bill from the floor and sent everyone home for more than a week.
Then there was a carefully crafted bipartisan agreement to renew FISA Section 702, the nations most effective program to track terrorists. Its authorization ran out after the president sidetracked the nomination of Jay Clayton, his own pick to become Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
Republicans couldnt pass the FISA authorization on their own, so they engineered a bipartisan compromise with Democrats. But Democrats withdrew their support for the bill once the president announced that housing czar Bill Pulte would take over as acting DNI for former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned. Democrats viewed Pulte as a partisan who had no experience in intelligence. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., quickly scheduled a for Jay Clayton once Trump tapped him as the nominee.
It was believed that the Senate may be able to confirm Clayton within a matter of days after his confirmation hearing. That would limit time on the job by Pulte. So, once Clayton was in place, the Senate could prospectively return to the bipartisan FISA deal and pass it.
But Trump detonated all of that last week. He insisted that Senate Republicans cancel Claytons confirmation hearing and not advance his nomination until it has confirmed J
