By Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch
President-elect Trump exults in the power he envisions with Republican control of the White House, House and Senate to rapidly deliver an ambitious agenda he described to voters.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), the GOP’s leadership successor to Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), signaled in interviews broadcast Sunday that sharing the president-elect’s overarching goals is not the same as rubber-stamping his legislative endeavors.
Thune — who told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his relationship with Trump is “evolving” — also told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he wants Trump to see “what’s realistic” because the Senate differs significantly from the House.
“Understanding the unique aspects of how the Senate operates is something that I’m going to have to be able to share and convey to the president and help him understand,” he said.
Bottom line: Trump has a history of chafing at anything short of what he perceives as loyalty, and Thune is approaching his leadership position by arguing that shared objectives require deference and compromise. Republicans now have a 53-47 majority in the Senate. The fractious House GOP majority is wafer-thin.
The senator told CBS he and the incoming president share “the same set of objectives. We want to get to the same destination, but I think, at times, there’ll be differences in how we get there.”
How Thune balances a role he won with support from his Republican colleagues with the demands of a president who years ago bashed him as a “RINO” (Republican in name only) remains to be seen. Thune defends the Senate filibuster, which Trump would like to jettison. The GOP leader says the Senate will hold thorough, fair hearings for Trump’s nominees, not leave town to make way for presidential recess appointments (a notion the president-elect and allies have not abandoned). Thune also won’t publicly commit to supporting all of Trump’s Cabinet picks.
Thune last summer said Trump’s vows to raise tariffs were a “a recipe for increased inflation.” He reacted in 2021 to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 saying, “this kind of thuggery would not keep us from doing the people’s work,” and he denounced Trump’s role as “inexcusable.”
Flash forward four years, and Thune now says Trump’s vows to pardon the Jan. 6 rioters would be the president’s determination to make.
“I think you learn from the past, you remember the past, but you live in the present and the future,” the South Dakota senator told NBC.
The Hill:The legacy of the prosecutions of Jan. 6, 2021, defendants remain in flux.
Separately, in a New York courtroom days before the inauguration, Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on 34 felony counts after conviction last year. He will not receive a penalty sentence from the judge.
▪ The Hill: Trump’s political comeback will be complete today.
▪ The Hill: During today’s certification by Congress of Trump’s Electoral College victory, Vice President Harris will preside over an official tally of her defeat.