Republican in-fighting explodes as Trump demands they cancel vacation

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

Republicans in Washington are once again fighting each other, according to The Hill, as disagreements rage over President Donald Trump's new demand that they cancel their summer recess.

For months, Trump has insisted that the Senate must pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would impose strict new rules on voting and voter registration to address his long-debunked claims about widespread voter fraud. Senate GOP leaders, in response, have repeatedly stressed that the bill lacks the support in the chamber to overcome the filibuster threshold, leaving the party and the president in a stalemate.

Traditionally, the Senate breaks for a summer recess at the beginning of August and does not return to Washington, D.C., for several weeks, with the departure being considered especially important during midterm election years, as it allows candidates seeking reelection to hit the campaign trail. Now, however, Trump has demanded that the Senate cancel its summer recess this year to both "debate the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act and advance a budget reconciliation package to fund the Iran war," according to a Wednesday morning report from The Hill.

"GOP senators are divided over whether to cut short the five-week break, which would take vulnerable Republican incumbent Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Jon Husted (Ohio) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska) away from the campaign trail," The Hill detailed. "They’re also at odds over whether to dive into what Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) warned would be a 'risky' attempt to pass a budget package that contains billions of dollars for an unpopular foreign conflict, as well as funding for farmers and election-related reforms."

The report continued: "Looming over it all are the fast-approaching midterms and festering frustration among some Republicans about the curveballs being thrown by the president. Trump and his allies are pushing hard for the Senate to vote as soon as next week on a budget resolution to unlock the process to advance a $95 billion proposal drafted by the House to help cover the costs of the Iran war — even though Thune warned last week that such a proposal doesn’t have 50 Republican votes to advance in the Senate."

According to sources within the party conference, Trump's demand that some or all of the August recess be cancelled to pursue these dicey and unpopular legislative proposals has "sparked a firestorm" among Republicans that could get ugly.

"It has the potential to blow up [the conference]," one anonymous Republican Senator told The Hill. “It’s a very divisive concept.”

Other Republican senators are warning that the SAVE Act remains unlikely to pass and that cancelling the summer recess would not change that fact. In fact, the attempt "will only wind up disappointing GOP base voters when they fail to deliver" on Trump's demands.

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