CNN
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Shortly after Donald Trump blinded Senators and supported the House plan to move forward with the president’s agenda last week, Senator John Tune convened his leadership team to navigate the next step.
Leadership had to be made quickly: they would preempt their own plans to advance their Senate budget, knowing that it was not the president’s first choice, or they would sit down and have a chance Will you know there will wait for the house to try the muscles through their version through their version and it will fail and waste time?
Thune went up at the top. The room’s senator was his preference, and the room’s senator kept course, held votes, endured the overnight voting marathon, and even if the house finally shelved plans, He said he would get there. But Republicans in South Dakota wanted his leadership team to weigh him before he made his final call.
They agreed. I never turned back.
“He just strengthened his resolve and his opinion without uncertainty, and I think that’s the real strength he has,” GOP Conference Chair Shelley Moore Capit told CNN. He talked about Thune’s process.
This incident gives a brief glimpse of the newly-built Senate leaders navigating an unpredictable president who always looks at eye contact, balancing the majority that are more room for error than homes. You can lock step for weeks and months.
Although it was only seven weeks, Thune was able to continue to consolidate the meeting enough to confirm all of the Trump candidates that came out of the committee. It is also the fastest pace of cabinet checks since 2001.
In interviews with more than 20 GOP senators and aides, most acknowledge that Thune’s work will become more challenging in the coming months. The Senate will need to pass a spending bill with Democrats by March 14th, and the GOP will need to negotiate again with Democrats to raise the debt cap.
“I mean, that’s a great test for any leader,” said Republican Sen. Tom Tillis, North Carolina.
In his own rank, Thune must contest some close calls for Trump’s most controversial candidates, including Pete Hegzes for the Secretary of Defense who has already won three GOP “no” votes Not there.
Second, Thune needs to find a way to square his members’ vision of tax cuts, with what the house can pass on with a historically slim majority. And it doesn’t begin to explain that Trump is guaranteed to be satisfied with the end result.
“Things are going to be even more choppier now,” predicted Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley.
However, members who regularly meet Thune at Republican lunches paint one-on-one pictures of the leaders they are confident in at leadership meetings. Many people find other senators who were once conservative hardliners on the side of former GOP leader Mitch McConnell and feel refreshing and effective, Midwest sensibility and humility. It describes it as friendly and friendly, with a sense of central sensitivity and humility that accompanied by a sense of humility.
“He was much more consultative and supportive than we’ve become accustomed to,” said the GOP Senator. “I think he understands he was selected to help empower some of his members. He also says that he is campaigning on that platform. Understand and provide those relief to the members, he follows.”
Senators are reluctant to make a complete comparison with McConnell, whom many respect as Senate premier tacticians, but many observe that Toon is more free to spread information at private meetings. And even when the outcome occurs, they are updating the senators on the status of negotiations. It remains uncertain.
“I’m not going to compare him to McConnell. They’re two different people,” said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. “I think the new leader is doing really well. He’s very softened. He’s a good listener. He’s working together.”
When Thune campaigned to become a GOP leader from the summer, he bumped into the Senate Republican campaign trail and crossed the state funding for the party, detractors fully repaired their relationship with Trump I questioned whether it could be possible. If the president is elected for the second term.
Tensions between Trump and South Dakota Republicans hit the Crescendo after the 2020 election when Toon refused to try to overturn the election results in Congress. Trump threatened to support a major challenger against Thune, but that didn’t happen and he won his reelection in 2022 at an affordable rate.
When Trump reappeared in the campaign trail, Toon waited until February 2024 to support him after first throwing his support behind South Carolina friend Sen. Tim Scott. Ta. Thune raised questions about Trump’s viability as a general election candidate, warning at the time that “general elections are being won among voters,” and that it doesn’t work well at the top of the tickets, downwards. It has been revealed that it may have an impact on the ballot. The Senate could cost a majority.
But Trump and Tune have found a way to a productive working relationship. This is an evolution that began last March when Thune traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet the current president. Trump also decided to leave the GOP leader race despite pressure to get involved within his orbit. Even on Thursday, when Thune advanced his vote on the Senate budget, Trump praised his work on the true society, saying, “To the majority leader John Toon and Republican Senators, to Trump Border’s agenda.” “We are grateful for your hard work in funding.”
“Trump likes winners, John is the winner,” Sen. Mike Round, a fellow South Dakotan, said of the evolution of their relationship. “Trump believes John has the expertise to manage the Senate.”
Trump’s ally Sen. Mike Lee said he has been with Thune and Trump several times over the past few months, observing a clear relationship. Utah Republicans said Trump has made public and personally clear to other members. He believes Toon can implement his agenda, allowing him to put aside his past differences.
“Trump likes John Tune, and there were these differences, but I love how good he is at this,” said North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer.
But that doesn’t guarantee that your honeymoon will last forever. Thune will need to continue navigating how far he pushes back to some of Trump’s most controversial decisions. Some were quickly furious in the early days of the president’s second term. From Trump’s choice to his conviction on January 6, 2021 to the threat of unlocking 25% tariffs in Canada and Mexico, rioters could have a massive impact. In South Dakota’s hometown, the economy relies heavily on crop exports and manufactured goods overseas.
In the January 6 pardon, Thune largely avoided direct questions from reporters about whether he supported the move, even if some of his party warned that the president had made a mistake. I did.
“We look at the future, not the past,” Thune told reporters in January.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn has run for his leadership and while managing the expectations of the administration as a Senate leader is always caught up in the work challenges, Trump has a heartburn extra. He admitted it is a source of origin.
Thune has so far been on the good side of Trump by running a tough schedule on the Senate floor, forcing five days of work, working hard enough to check on Trump. Cabinets were not used to maintain meetings from conservative attacks. He also tried to manage the floor and reduce the time it takes for senators to vote. This is a trivial thing outside the Capitol dome, but what GOP Senators said has improved significantly in recent years.
“I think Senator McConnell has been doing that job for a long time, so anyone who comes after him will be challenged by comparison, but of course, the challenge of dealing with an unconventional president would be an additional problem. I will present it,” Cornyn said. , added that he saw Thune as an effective leader who managed the nomination process with an impressive clip. “I don’t know how relationships will evolve depending on the issue. At some point, I was always hoping there would be a difference in opinion between the Senate and (the president).”
As for member priorities, the senator says it will reward those who get the bill on the floor by allowing Thune to play an important role in managing the floor process. Thune, a former high school basketball player, reminds her colleagues that she rewards her “always making extra passes.”
Thune’s claim that members can be empowered reduced both ways.
With the nomination, Thune carefully adjusted the process without twisting or cohesive arms. That is, members are sometimes left to oppose Trump’s wishes, sometimes to defend votes and grounds for the White House itself. Thune, who is in close contact with the White House, reveals that the votes have not been realized after Gaetz held a series of one-on-one meetings when Trump nominated Matt Getz for Attorney General I did. As for other candidates, Thune has early connections with members and leaves room for decisions after trying to get information to fill the gap if they are on the fence. However, Thune also made it clear that it would not protect members from direct concerns about the president and his team.
At the height of questions about Pete Hegses’ selection for Defense Secretary, and just before the vote was scheduled for later in the week, Tillis warned that the votes may not have been there. North Carolina Republicans have suggested that the vote be delayed. Thune encouraged Tillis to direct that message to the White House, making it clear that he hasn’t moved the vote.
Tillis ultimately supported Hegus.
“I don’t think I told him, ‘Hey, you need to be with the team on this,'” Alaska Sen. Lisa, who voted against a few Trump candidates, including Hegses, said. Markowski said. “When I shared it with him where I am, he is grateful that I am open with him and that I have not left him.”
Shortly after he was elected leader, Thune believes that two separate bills to advance Trump’s agenda are the fastest and most reliable way to inject cash into the president into the borders and pentagons. I pitched a Senate colleague about it. Despite an evolved series of unexpected obstacles from the home and the White House, he is consistently pushed forward.
On Friday, early in the morning, the Senate confirmed only one GOP asylum, budget resolutions 52-48. This is the first step in a long process, but it’s still a victory.
“It’s called leadership,” Montana Sen. Steve Daines, former chairman of the Senate GOP’s campaign division, told CNN. “Leaders are decisive, so leaders are effective.”
CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and Jenna Monnin contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.
