WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican senators who have been at odds with President Donald Trump in recent weeks will have a chance to confront him face-to-face when he attends a party luncheon in the Capitol on Wednesday.
Senators said Tuesday that they hope the closed-door meeting will focus on unity, not disagreement. Yet it comes at a time when Trump appears to have lost interest in much of their agenda ahead of the midterm elections, pushing his proof-of-citizenship voting bill instead even though it doesn’t have the votes to pass.
In the last month, Trump has abruptly blocked Senate Republicans from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend his Iran war even as they question the strategy and endgame.
Trump has also helped whittle down his own support in the Senate after endorsing primary challengers to two GOP incumbents who were previously reliable votes for his agenda – Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy. Both men lost their primaries and have since become more critical of the president.
“If we’re going to win the midterm elections, we need to get on the same page,” Cornyn said Tuesday ahead of the meeting. “We’re not on the same page now, and that I think is dangerous.”
It was uncertain, though, if Trump’s visit would smooth differences with the Republican majority – or if GOP senators who have been increasingly vocal about their frustration will voice their concerns directly.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said a lot of his complaints with the administration have already been communicated. He said he hopes the meeting will be “conciliatory.”
“That would be a big win for us tomorrow,” Tillis said.
Adding to the tension is Trump’s increasingly distant relationship with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. While Thune remains popular in his conference and cordial with the president, he has spent much of his time lately telling Trump what he doesn’t want to hear.
Thune said Tuesday that while Trump and some in their conference want to see the voting bill pass, “it’s just not realistic.”
Trump has been pushing the Senate for months to eliminate the filibuster and pass the legislation, known as the SAVE America Act, which would create strict new requirements for voters to prove citizenship and show voter ID at the polls. He has also demanded that they add a ban on mail-in ballots to the bill as well as unrelated provisions to block sex reassignment surgeries on some minors and prevent people born as men from playing in women’s sports.
“John is a leader and hopefully he can get the votes,” Trump said Tuesday on a trip to Pennsylvania.
Thune devoted weeks of floor time to the voting bill earlier this year and has said he supports it. But he has repeatedly said there aren’t enough votes to scrap the filibuster that triggers a 60-vote threshold to pass most bills in the 53-47 Senate. And Democrats are uniformly opposed to the bill.
“Those are just hard realities,” Thune said. “And I think people at some point have to come to grips with that.”
Thune said he hopes the meeting is about “sitting down as a family” and “celebrating time left before the election.”
Thune said he found out Trump was coming to the luncheon from Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who had extended the invitation without telling him – an unusual move that could signal some frustration within the ranks. Scott, a close Trump ally, leads the Senate Republican lunch every Wednesday.
Scott, who ran against Thune for leader two years ago, said Trump responded “on the spot” to his invitation and said he would come.
“He’s going to be very positive,” Scott said. “There’s a lot that we can brag about that we’ve accomplished, and he wants to figure out how we can win November and continue to fulfill his agenda.”
On Monday, Scott sent a letter to his Republican colleagues arguing that the Senate should be taking votes every week on some version of the SAVE America Act and other GOP priorities that Democrats oppose.
“We need to show voters that we are listening to them and will fight for their priorities whether any Democrats vote with us or not,” Scott wrote.
Also needling Thune on the bill is Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican who has amassed a large following on X with daily posts about how they should kill the filibuster and pass the bill. Several Republican senators, including Cornyn, confronted Lee at a closed-door lunch last week about his advocacy.
Lee has also echoed Trump’s claims that Republicans can’t win elections unless the bill passes, despite the party’s sweeping victories in 2024.
“The push to pass the SAVE America Act is not a ‘fantasy,"” Lee posted over the weekend. “It’s a plan to avoid a nightmare – one that’s coming soon unless we act.”
Thune said Tuesday that it’s Lee’s prerogative to post, but “at the end of the day, I have a different reality. And sometimes the alternative universe that is X doesn’t reflect the facts on the ground.”
Trump could be faced with questions about his announcement on social media last week that he was delaying Jay Clayton’s nomination to become national intelligence director. Republican leaders had hoped to quickly confirm Clayton and circumvent Trump’s unpopular interim pick Bill Pulte, who has no known experience in the field.
In the same social media post, Trump said he wouldn’t sign a renewal of a key surveillance law unless Senate Republicans attach the SAVE America Act. That hardline approach has some support in the House, where a group of 25 Republicans has vowed to oppose all legislation until the voting bill moves forward.
Republicans could also use the luncheon to push Trump on the war in Iran and the agreement with Iran to end it. Most lawmakers still have not been briefed about the deal.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said there are a lot of questions about the Iran agreement, but added that Trump may not be able to talk publicly about the ongoing negotiations.
“We’re there to listen” and to try and ensure that the rest of Trump’s term is successful, Rounds said. But that means “we’ve got to come out with a united team.”
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Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.
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