President Donald Trump’s attempt to undercut the authority of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) appears to have had the opposite effect.
In a recent interview with Punchbowl News, the president took great pains not to endorse Thune for another term in his GOP leadership position.
As The Hill is reporting, what Trump would not do, Thune’s colleagues did.
Senate Republicans are publicly uniting behind Thune despite Trump’s refusal to support him for another leadership term. GOP senators say Thune will “have their full support” regardless of whether Trump attempts to recruit a challenger.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) spoke for many Republicans, telling The Hill, “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.”
According to Moran, “Republican senators have been willing to yield to the president on a lot of issues but that they would draw a line against letting Trump push Thune out of his job or pick a replacement.”
Conservative Republicans pressuring Thune to keep the Senate in session during August recess also acknowledged the “challenges” of his position. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a leading advocate for the SAVE America Act, conceded: “It’s a hard job, it’s really a hard job.”
In the same Punchbowl News interview, Trump insisted that Republican voters are “not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans” in Congress. Republican senators are rejecting that framing.
Speaking with The Hill, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) disagreed.
“I think Republicans are angry at all of us, I mean the voters. I think the voters are angry, period. And I think they’re angry most about cost of living, and I think that’s what this election is going to be primarily about,” Kennedy said.
An increasing number of Senate Republicans view Trump and his depressed approval ratings—particularly on economic issues—as a greater political liability than any decisions made by Thune’s leadership team, The Hill is reporting. GOP lawmakers are actively distancing themselves from the president ahead of November as polling shows independent voters shifting away and Republican voter enthusiasm declining.
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