Top Senate Republican nukes Trump demand to muscle through unpopular bills

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso arrive for President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday shot down Donald Trump's demand to nuke the filibuster in order to help pass a contentious election reform bill, according to Politico, with the leading Republican warning that the results of such a move would be more complicated than the president thinks.

Trump has put immense pressure on the Republican-led Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would, among other things, require voters to present proof of their American citizenship at polling locations in order to vote. Despite passing the House, the bill stalled out in the Senate amid opposition from key party leaders and is unlikely to get past the 60-vote threshold to avoid the legislative filibuster.

As a result, GOP Rep. Mike Lee, one of the bill's sponsors, has urged Thune and other party leaders to force Democrats into a "talking filibuster" scenario, which would allow the SAVE Act to pass with a simple majority if the opposition party lawmakers are unable to hold the Senate floor by physically speaking long enough to wear down Republicans and stop the vote.

Speaking with reporters on Monday, Thune warned that such an idea would be "complicated and risky" in ways that proponents are not anticipating.

"This particular approach in terms of the process is much more complicated and risky than people are assuming at the moment," Thune said, according to Politico.

Thune warned that this approach could eat up considerable time in the Senate. He also dismissed the major campaign calling for him to alter filibuster rules for the SAVE Act as the result of a "paid influencer ecosystem," and ruled out getting rid of the legislative filibuster altogether, further warning that he could not guarantee results if the party went down that path.

"The one thing I’ve said all along and I’ve told [Trump] and others — that I can’t guarantee an outcome,” Thune said. “I can’t guarantee a result if the result is only achieved by nuking the legislative filibuster. We don’t have the votes to do that, and so that’s just not a realistic option, and I’ve made that clear to anybody who’s asked."

Other lawmakers who spoke to Politico worried that invoking a talking filibuster might "permanently weaken the 60-vote legislative filibuster," while others warned that it would give the Democrats a major tool to disrupt the Senate GOP's agenda.

"Others think the procedural option being floated by Lee and others is unworkable because it would let Democrats bog down the floor and potentially hijack the bill for any proposal for which they could get at least 50 votes," Politico explained.

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