SCOOP: "You're doing a fantastic job": Friendship between Trump and Thune is critical to Senate GOP's unity during Schumer Shutdown
The president and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have been singing from the same song sheet for most of this year. Here's how we got here.
As America careens towards the second month of the Schumer Shutdown, the Washington Reporter’s sources on the Hill have been remarking about the strength of the relationship between President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) — which was recently put on full display when the White House invited Thune and Senate Republicans over for lunch.
With the exception of Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), every Senate Republican has stood with Thune and Trump in the midst of unprecedented Democratic Party obstruction.
During the Rose Club festivities, Trump praised Thune’s leadership, friendship, and stewardship of the Senate.
“I want to thank the outstanding leadership team,” Trump told the assembled senators, “and you really do have that. Majority Leader John Thune, who’s been my friend. He really has done an amazing job. Thank you, John. Thank you…I didn’t get to know John as well in the first term, and I’ve gotten to know him very well over the last nine months, John, and you’re doing a fantastic job.”
While Trump and Thune didn’t work nearly as closely during Trump’s first term, that has changed dramatically this year, as Thune and his team have worked overtime to overcome a different sort of Democratic Party obstruction when it comes to Trump’s nominees.
“We went so fast” on confirming nominees, Trump said, “and I give John Thune and all of you credit for that. It was amazing. All of a sudden I was calling John. ‘John, I’ve got to get ‘em approved. Come on, John,’ because I was getting like, one every two weeks…All of a sudden, it was like an avalanche. They walked in, James and James, my double James, I call them. They walk in, and they had so many of them.”
This relationship didn’t emerge from nowhere. Earlier this year, Trump praised Thune and the Senate GOP “for working so hard on funding the Trump Border Agenda…Put simply, we are delivering for the American People, far faster and, more successfully, than anyone thought possible. Your work on funding this effort is greatly appreciated!”
By the time the One Big, Beautiful Bill was in its final stages of passage, Trump was fully on the same page as both Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.).
On July 3rd, Trump posted that he is “very proud of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who worked around the clock to get the “ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT” approved in the Senate. He is tough, smart, and knows how to GET THE JOB DONE. Thank you John!”
Thune’s partnership with Trump has cemented his status as the head of the Senate GOP, but it is also paying off for his constituents in South Dakota.
Last month, Trump wrote that he “just got off the phone with our wonderful Republican Leader John Thune.”
“I am approving over $500,000 for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Tribe in the Great State of South Dakota for the terrible Storms and Flooding they endured in June,” the president added. “I love the people of South Dakota, who voted for me in Historic Margins in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Together, we will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”