U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
During the GOP's 2026 U.S. Senate primary in Texas, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn went out of his way to win President Donald Trump's support — from wanting to rename a highway after Trump to posting a photo of him reading "The Art of the Deal." But Trump endorsed Cornyn's challenger: far-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who defeated him by roughly 27 percent in a Tuesday runoff. According to Salon's Amanda Marcotte, Trump's treatment of Cornyn is a prime example of his willingness to throw a "loyal MAGA foot solider" under the bus — and do so at his own peril.
"Trump is already paying for his choice to endorse Paxton over Cornyn," Marcotte observes in Salon. "Senate Majority Leader John Thune has barely hidden his exasperation, complaining to reporters, 'None of us control what the president does.' Multiple Republican senators have refused to answer questions or expressed displeasure at the prospect of losing Cornyn, a fundraising powerhouse for the party…. Now, they have one more reason to resist Trump: He has proved he will not return any loyalty shown to him by legislators. Cornyn has been a loyal MAGA foot soldier, voting with Trump 99 percent of the time. His only real resistance has been in refusing to agree to the Big Lie that Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election, but even then, he still refused to vote for Trump;s impeachment over the January 6 riot."
Marcotte continues, "Trump keeps the Republican caucus in line with fear he will endorse their primary opponents, and his endorsement of Paxton over Cornyn is that anxiety made manifest. But showing that even fierce loyalty to Trump won't guarantee Republicans safety also removes much of the incentive to stick by him."
In Salon, Marcotte has written extensively about Republicans going to great lengths to please Trump only to get thrown under the bus in the end — for example, the firings of former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and ex-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, both MAGA loyalists.
Now, Marcotte argues, Trump has made Cornyn part of the "YOLO (You Only Live Once) caucus," meaning GOP lawmakers who won't be in Congress after January 2027 and will be more likely to speak their minds about the president. Senate Republicans often described as "YOLO" include North Carolina's Thom Tillis and Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, neither of whom is seeking reelection.
"Trump's inadvertent creation of a YOLO (You Only Live Once) caucus is looking to be a poor decision on his part," the Salon journalist observes. "Free from having to placate the infamous bully in chief, these Republicans are causing far more problems for him than they ever did when they were trying to stay in his good graces. They are trying to derail his slush fund, attacking and helping push out members of his Cabinet — and it looks like they may even kill the ballroom funding."
Marcotte adds, "With only 53 senators in the caucus, adding one more Republican to the list of people who are angry at Trump could make it very hard for the president to will a majority on anything he wants to do, especially if it's already unpopular."