Republicans panic as Trump and party leader go radio silent at the worst time

President Donald Trump walks with U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune on the day of a Senate Steering Committee Lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 24, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci

Republicans are beginning to panic, according to a new CNN report, as a major rift appears to be growing between President Donald Trump and a top party leader at a time when everyone needs to lock in for the midterms.

As CNN noted in a new weekend report, Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune appear to have gone largely radio silent with one another, with "days, if not weeks" passing between times when the top senator hears from the president. Thune has suggested that the two only speak "more on an as-needed basis" lately, in stark contrast to Trump's dynamic with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who "sometimes can’t get [him] off the phone."

Johnson has been noted as one of the more committed and enthusiastic lieutenants for the president in Congress, making their active relationship somewhat unsurprising. Thune, by contrast, has drawn significant ire from Trump in recent months over his insistence that the SAVE America Act is dead on arrival in the Senate. The bill — which would implement major voter ID requirements and has been called Trump's "No. 1 priority" — lacks the support in the Senate to overcome the filibuster threshold, with Thune being obstinately opposed to altering those rules to pass the bill.

"While the two have never been personally close, with the mild-mannered Thune far different in style than the mercurial and combative president, they were in much more frequent communication at the start of Trump’s second term, according to senators and people who know both," CNN explained. "Trump would frequently praise Thune’s leadership as the Senate GOP leader ushered through his agenda and often bit his tongue when he disagreed with the president, whether it was about an incendiary social media post or a policy like sweeping tariffs that hurt his constituents in South Dakota. Yet in their private talks, Thune uses a very direct approach with Trump, bluntly explaining what can and cannot be accomplished in the Senate, GOP sources say, far different than other Republicans who tend to follow the president’s orders, no matter how implausible."

This increasingly frosty relationship has some in the party sweating about the damage this could do to the party in the coming midterms, which they are already expected to lose badly to Democrats.

"We need to be talking up the wins, talking about how crazy Democrats are, and instead we are knifing each other," one anonymous GOP senator told CNN.

“The infighting is not really productive,” Sen. Jim Justice, a West Virginia Republican, said. “There’s no point in going round and round and round.”

“I would say we’re all longing for a relationship with the White House where we work more in harmony,” Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, added.

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