Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) issued an “extraordinary rebuke” of members of his own party this week amid a wave of recent inner-party “chaos” sparked by President Donald Trump, Punchbowl News reported on Friday.
Thune, according to Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio, Laura Weiss and John Bresnahan, has had “just about the worst luck over the past couple months” as Trump’s agenda has increasingly placed the Senate GOP leader in difficult positions – from derailing the entire GOP agenda this week by “canceling” a Senate confirmation hearing, to pushing the SAVE Act, his controversial voting ID bill that analysts say has no path forward in Congress.
“Every time during 2026 that Thune seems to be turning a corner, Trump comes in red-hot,” Punchbowl News’ report reads.
Trump has also demanded that Republicans eliminate the filibuster — a Senate rule that allows members to block a bill that receives less than 60 votes — creating what Punchbowl News described as “unnecessary rifts among Republicans.”
Rep. Mike Lee (R-UT) has been among the most vocal proponents of fulfilling Trump’s wishes — even when they have no realistic path forward — prompting Thune to issue an 'extraordinary rebuke' of Lee and other Republican senators who are complicating the GOP's legislative agenda.
“Everybody knows we’re not nuking the filibuster,” Thune told Punchbowl News. “It was on the floor for two weeks. We’ve had now five votes on it, none of which have gotten 60, and SAVE America hasn’t even gotten 50. So at some point, it seems like we ought to start making this an issue with the Democrats rather than with each other.”
