GOP senators furious as MAGA traps Republican leader in 'political pressure cooker'

Senate Majority Leader John Thune pushes his glasses up as he speaks to reporters outside his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., October 14, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been forced into a "political pressure cooker" by the MAGA members of the GOP, per a new report from Politico, as they push for him to go around the filibuster to pass an unpopular election reform bill demanded by Donald Trump.

According to the Wednesday morning report, Thune "is at the center of a relentless pile-on from prominent figures in the GOP’s MAGA wing" to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that, among other things, would require voters to provide identification proving their citizenship at polling locations, an idea driven by Trump's debunked claims about widespread voter fraud committed by undocumented immigrants. Trump is so insistent on the passage of the bill that he has pledged not to sign any others until it is passed and sent to his desk.

MAGA Republicans are pushing for Thune to invoke a "talking filibuster" to get around the typical "legislative filibuster" rules, which would require 60 votes for the SAVE Act to proceed, an impossibility given Democratic opposition. Under a talking filibuster, only a simple majority of 51 votes would be needed, and Democrats would have to physically hold the Senate floor and speak for hours to keep it from proceeding.

Thune has dug in his heels in opposition to this idea, arguing that there is not actually enough support for it. He has also previously stated that the plan could have more complicated consequences than its proponents realize, and could result in Democrats eating up valuable Senate time with talking.

The pressure campaign against Thune reached a "crescendo" this week, according to Politico, with Tesla CEO and one-time Trump ally Elon Musk joining the calls for him to be removed as majority leader. For his part, Thune does not appear to be bothered.

“It just kind of comes with the territory,” Thune said in an interview on Tuesday. “You just roll with it, you know. It’s the times in which we live.”

Other non-MAGA-aligned Republicans have also begun to speak out against their colleagues' calls for a talking filibuster, including Sen. Thom Tillis, a prominent Trump critic who is set to retire soon.

“Spare me the insights,” Tillis said. “They’re worse than Democrats because they’re so-called Republicans that are trying to undermine Republicans.”

He added that lawmakers calling for a talking filibuster “have no earthly idea how unlikely it is we’ll be successful at the end of the day. And yet they want to pressure me into exposing some of our candidates to votes that make no sense, that are not going to succeed.”

Other GOP senators spoke to Politico anonymously about their frustrations, with one calling the antics of their MAGA colleagues "bulls——," and another saying that, "A lot of us are done."

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