{"id":19712,"date":"2026-07-28T09:41:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T04:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19712"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:41:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T04:41:43","slug":"thunes-shield-against-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19712","title":{"rendered":"Thune&#039;s shield against Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/sm8QlDj6-ti75ofyHydH380vFPo=\/0x0:7554x4249\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/27\/1785191663216.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pulling off something today&#8217;s Republicans rarely attempt: telling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">President Trump<\/a> &#8220;no.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>Pressure from Trump and the MAGA base is piling up on Thune (R-S.D.), especially over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/18\/trump-save-act-thune-senate\" target=\"_blank\">a voter ID bill,<\/a> but he has an important insurance policy: GOP senators have his back.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I think he&#8217;s got strong support. I read all the stories, but I think mostly that&#8217;s made up by reporters,&#8221; Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) told Axios. <\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Leaders absorb some of the punishment, but I think he&#8217;s doing great. No one could do a better job than he is right now,&#8221; Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told Axios.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;His cred in the conference has never been stronger,&#8221; Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Catch up quick: <\/strong>Trump&#8217;s frustration with Thune over the inability to pass the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/03\/29\/save-act-voter-registration-distance-travel\" target=\"_blank\">SAVE America Act<\/a> or nuke the filibuster is, again, bubbling over.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Thune should not allow the United States  Senate to &#8216;leave town&#8217; until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER,&#8221; Trump demanded <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/%40realDonaldTrump\/posts\/116992066632190700\" target=\"_blank\">on Truth Social<\/a> on Monday morning.<\/li>\n<li>Thune has snapped back, reiterating that it is a matter of math. There are not enough votes to pass SAVE, end the filibuster or justify canceling the August recess.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Give me a rationale or a path to getting success, staying here through the month of August,&#8221; Thune told reporters Monday about the calls from Trump and a few GOP senators to cancel recess to pass SAVE. &#8220;You could stay here til Christmas.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What to watch: <\/strong>Trump has not called for Thune&#8217;s ouster. He even told reporters Monday that their relationship is &#8220;fine.&#8221; But the building anger has fueled widespread speculation in D.C. that the president could eventually go there.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Even if he does, it would not carry the same weight as a threat to Speaker Mike Johnson&#8217;s leadership in the House.<\/li>\n<li>For one, Senate leadership elections are conducted by private ballot, giving more cover to senators who may not want to publicly cross Trump.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What we&#8217;re hearing: <\/strong>Many Republican senators are quick to share their support for Thune behind closed doors, even if not all are willing to publicly do so right now.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thune &#8220;is not in jeopardy,&#8221; a GOP senator told Axios, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. &#8220;He is not the problem.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>&#8220;We have a bunch of people<\/strong> across Capitol Hill that are obsessed with social media fame,&#8221; another senator told Axios, referring to those questioning Thune&#8217;s leadership.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Senior GOP aides for other senators also tell Axios the problem is really &#8220;squeaky wheels&#8221; getting more attention and that the situation could ultimately benefit Thune within the conference.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side: <\/strong>A conservative corner of the conference is certainly growing frustrated with Thune. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Seven senators are now calling to delay the August recess until SAVE is passed: Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ashley Moody (R-Fla), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Darline Graham (R-S.C.)<\/li>\n<li>But even some of them admit Thune&#8217;s leadership is not at stake.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t say that, because his job lies with us,&#8221; Tuberville said when asked about any risk to Thune&#8217;s position as leader. &#8220;But a lot of people are getting a little bit frustrated.&#8221; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: <\/strong>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been somewhat disappointed more Republican senators haven&#8217;t been bold enough to speak out,&#8221; Cramer said.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014\u00a0Axios&#8217; Kate Santaliz contributed to this story. <\/em><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pulling off something today&#8217;s Republicans rarely attempt: telling President Trump &#8220;no.&#8221; Why it matters: Pressure from Trump and the MAGA base is piling up on Thune (R-S.D.), especially over a voter ID bill, but he has an important insurance policy: GOP senators have his back. &#8220;I think he&#8217;s got&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/sm8QlDj6-ti75ofyHydH380vFPo=\/0x0:7554x4249\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/27\/1785191663216.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}