Hope they have Maalox and Pepto-Bismol on hand when President Donald Trump visits Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans over lunch.Senate GOP Steering Committee Chairman and Sen.Rick Scott, R-Fla., invited Trump for the luncheon Wednesday.
Some Senate Republicans may wonder if they’re the ones on the menu.Both Sens.
Bill Cassidy, R-La., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are out after the president refused to endorse them and they lost their primaries.Trump has also sparred with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., exasperated that he can’t execute his legislative agenda.Scott is a close ally of the president.
He lost to Thune and Cornyn in the race to become majority leader in late 2024.In fact, Scott didn’t even request a blessing from the top Senate GOP leadership team to invite the president.Scott’s teamed up with Sen.
Mike Lee, R-Utah, advocating that the Senate approve the SAVE America Act.It requires proof of citizenship to vote.
This advocacy is driving Thune and other members of the GOP brass batty since the bill failed twice.Scott and Lee want the Senate to get onto the SAVE America Act and stay on it until the measure passes.
But few understand how exhaustion somehow conjures a majority of senators to suddenly support the bill.GOP TRIGGERS MARATHON SENATE FIGHT TO EXPOSE DEMS' OPPOSITION TO TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILLPresident Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on June 10, 2026.(Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)Moreover, the president demands that they eliminate the filibuster.
If the SAVE America Act doesn’t have the necessary votes to pass, there’s no way it commands 60 yeas to break a filibuster.Simple solution, right?Not really.Thune has said repeatedly that there aren’t the votes to alter the filibuster, either.It’s about the math.So expect some intense discussions Wednesday over what the president wants the Senate to do.
Thune has tried to tell the president repeatedly what the Senate is capa...