Trump Won't Say Whether He Backs Thune for Another Term: 'It's Unfortunate That He Doesn't Have the Votes'

President Trump declined to say whether he would support Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a second term as Republican leader, sidestepping the question in an interview with Punchbowl News that aired Friday.

"I don't want to get into that necessarily," Trump said when asked about backing the South Dakota Republican. He then volunteered his frustration: "I get along with him. It's unfortunate that he doesn't have the votes."

The votes in question belong to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act — the SAVE America Act — the proof-of-citizenship voting bill Trump has demanded the Senate pass for most of this year. Thune has said repeatedly that Senate Republicans are short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster on it, a judgment Trump treats as a lack of effort rather than a head count. The bill stalled in April when Republicans fell short of 60, and it has been the central friction point between the two men since.

Pressed on whether he gets along with Thune, Trump said, "I do," while making clear the disagreements are substantive. "I believe strongly in terminating the filibuster, and by the way, getting SAVE America Act approved immediately, and about 400 other things in every hour of every day," he said.

Thune has consistently refused both requests. He has said the votes are not there on the voting bill and has poured cold water on eliminating the 60-vote threshold, a position shared by a bloc of institutionalist Senate Republicans who watched the filibuster survive similar pressure campaigns in Trump's first term. Thune has also declined the president's request to cancel the August recess to force the bill through, telling colleagues senators need time in their states before the midterms.

Trump's argument for scrapping the filibuster is that Democrats will do it first. "If they get in, they're going to do it very quickly," he said. "I would do whether they did it or not. We would get in the next two and a half years, we would get things that nobody ever dreamed of. We would be in office for the next hundred years." He added a warning aimed at Republican senators: "And I tell you what, if they get it in, I will be the last Republican president."

The interview also produced Trump's assessment of his own party's standing with its voters, whom he described as fed up with Congress. A lot of them, he said, "are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you."

A Senate Republican leadership election would not occur until after November's midterms, when the conference votes on its leadership team for the next Congress. Thune won the job in November 2024 over Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, in a secret-ballot race Trump pointedly stayed out of at the time. A withheld endorsement from the president does not by itself put the post in play — Senate Republicans have historically guarded the secrecy of that ballot — but it signals to would-be challengers that the White House would not defend the incumbent.