By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Incoming U.S. Senate Republican leader John Thune will face the test of his career when Donald Trump returns to power next month, as he aims to shepherd the new president’s priorities through Congress while protecting his chamber’s authority over Cabinet picks and spending.
A 20-year Senate veteran, the 63-year-old South Dakotan is known as an affable negotiator skilled at finding common ground between opposing factions. He’ll step up as majority leader on Jan. 3, when his party’s new 53-47 majority is sworn in.
Thune will have to maintain a positive relationship with a sometimes petulant and unpredictable Trump who once sought his ouster and who has displayed little interest in the Senate’s role as a check on executive power.
He’ll be charged with overseeing the confirmation of a series of norm-shattering Cabinet nominees; delivering on Trump’s agenda of tax cuts, border security and energy deregulation, and averting a potential U.S. default on its more than $36 trillion in debt sometime next year.
“He’s entering the majority leader position during one of the most contentious and consequential years the Senate has had in a generation,” said Brian Riedl, a former Senate aide who is now a senior fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute. “It’s really going to be a trial by fire.”
Thune’s first test will be overseeing confirmation hearings for controversial Trump Cabinet picks including Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for national intelligence director, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary and Kash Patel as FBI director.
Members of Thune’s conference have expressed quiet concern about all four, whose resumes are unlike those of prior candidates for the powerful jobs. Since one Trump pick, former congressman Matt Gaetz, dropped out of the running for attorney general, Trump allies have stepped up pressure on Senate Republicans to get in line behind his other nominees.
Thune for weeks avoided weighing on the candidates’ qualifications, simply saying that each candidate will have to answer questions at a public hearing and then face a Senate confirmation vote. Some Trump supporters say that stance is not firm enough for their tastes.
“The Senate majority leader’s job is to ensure that qualified cabinet nominees of his president’s party win confirmation,” said Mike Davis, a former Senate Republican aide who is founder and president of the Article III Project.
Davis said his Trump-aligned advocacy group has already directed tens of thousands of people to call and email wavering Senate Republicans and “light them up” on social media.
“If those qualified nominees fail, that is John Thune’s failure,” Davis said.
Thune sounded a deferential note on Trump nominees in a Fox News interview last week, saying, “I give wide latitude and wide deference to the president when he makes these selections. We have a job to do, advice and consent, and we will do it and make sure that there’s a process that’s fair.”
Thune has survived one pressure campaign by members of Trump’s “Make American Great Again” movement, who had wanted Senator Rick Scott as the chamber’s leader instead.
That victory came in a secret ballot vote held behind closed doors, but the Cabinet votes will be held publicly in the Senate chamber.
‘AN INSTITUTIONALIST AT HEART’
Thune, whose current six-year term extends through 2028, has strong support in South Dakota, which insulated him against Trump’s hopes of putting up a primary challenger against him in 2022 after he criticized Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
He has said he plans to protect the Senate’s power and traditions, which include both the authority to confirm or deny a president’s Cabinet picks and its “filibuster” rule, which requires 60 of the 100 senators to agree on most legislation — meaning that he may at times need Democratic support.
“The Senate is here by design to be a place where things slow down, to be more deliberative and give voice to the minority,” Thune told reporters this month. “Obviously, as we’ve said before, the filibuster is non-negotiable.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Thursday, said he has “respect” for the filibuster and “a very good relationship” with Thune.
Thune entered the Senate in 2005 with the reputation of a giant slayer, after unseating then-Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who had led the chamber’s Democrats for the previous decade.
Daschle voiced respect for Thune in an interview.
“I have confidence in John Thune,” Daschle said. “He’s an institutionalist at heart.”
Thune’s allies say the former high school basketball star has the acumen to outmaneuver lawmakers unwilling to toe the party line on critical votes. That’s a skill that both Thune and his House of Representatives counterpart, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, who will start the year with a narrow 217-215 majority, will need next year.
“What you see in him occasionally is the competitive athlete. It’s the same sort of spirit,” Republican Senator Kevin Cramer told reporters. “I suspect he has pretty sharp elbows on the basketball court.”
Trump, and his supporters, may expect no less — and seem poised to push back if some Senate Republicans try to buck his priorities. Trump has already suggested he would turn to recess appointments to install nominees if the Senate doesn’t support his picks.
“All are highly qualified men and women who have the talent, experience and necessary skill sets to Make America Great Again, and we expect members of the Senate will recognize that during the confirmation process,” Trump-Vance Transition spokesperson Colton Snedecor said in a statement.
Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said Thune may face pressure from hardline conservatives with no interest in the Senate’s traditions: “There’s an awful lot of folks going into the new administration who just think of Congress as a pain in the butt.”
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
