Senate Majority Leader John Thune tipped his hand this week and suggested that he was pushing for a “deal” with President Donald Trump.
During an interview on Fox News with anchor Martha MacCallum, Thune asked Trump to quickly endorse Texas Sen. John Cornyn so that Republicans could avoid what is expected to be a costly and nasty primary runoff against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Thune said he hasn’t talked to Trump since the results of Tuesday’s primary came in, but that he plans to work even harder, saying on Wednesday that “hopefully” the president will give Cornyn his important support.
“If Trump endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money, and … 10 weeks of a spirited campaign on our side that keeps us from spending time focusing on the Democrats. If the president can weigh in it would be enormously helpful,” Thune said.
For months, Thune and other Senate Republicans have been trying to get Trump to support Cornyn. Cornyn said last month that he didn’t think the president would say anything before the election on Tuesday night. The runoff will take place on May 26, and the winner will face Democrat James Talarico, who didn’t have to run on Tuesday.
Other Republican senators are also likely to make their case for Cornyn to Trump again after the four-term veteran did better than expected on Tuesday.
As of Wednesday morning, Cornyn is narrowly leading Paxton with 94 percent of the votes counted, according to the Associated Press. Many polls had Cornyn trailing Paxton ahead of Election Day.
Thune called it a “great night” for Cornyn. Other allies of the Texas Republican who were granted anonymity to speak candidly said his performance Tuesday means, in their view, a Trump endorsement is still a possibility.
WATCH:
Senate Leader Thune says that he’s spoke to president Trump about the GOP primary runoff between Paxton and Cornyn.
Thune: “I think, as probably you know, Martha, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I hope the president will endorse John Cornyn.” pic.twitter.com/prKhDxr8sm
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) March 4, 2026
At another point in the interview, Thune spoke about the Senate blocking a resolution that sought to limit President Trump’s authority to conduct military operations in Iran.
The resolution, introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D Va., aimed to require congressional approval for continued military action.
“This is all about the Democrats’ … Trump Derangement Syndrome … and their blind hatred of the president, just being opposed to anything that he wants to do … Clearly there are Democrats, I believe, who understand that what we’re doing in Iran right now makes all the sense in the world from a national security standpoint,” Thune said.
“But this is an attempt … to try to derail or step on the president’s messaging around that and create a political issue where there really isn’t one … This is … nothing more than political messaging on behalf of the Democrats. This isn’t going anywhere. The president’s acting well within his authorities as the commander in chief,” Thune added.
“What the president is doing in Iran is something that, frankly, should have been done … arguably a long time ago … Iran has been building not only its nuclear capability, but its conventional weapons capability to a point that it would have threatened the entire region … [Iran is] run by somebody who has said, ‘Death to Israel. Death to America.’ That’s what they believe. They’re the biggest exporter of … terrorism in the world today and they … have more American blood on their hands than any nation in the world, if you look at the last 47 years … The president is taking steps to make the world and our country and our people safer,” Thune declared.
Thune declared, “What [the administration is] doing [in Iran] is achieving the objectives that they set out to achieve, and that is to diminish the capability of Iran to threaten the entire region and the world with nuclear and conventional weapons; to diminish their naval capacity in that region; and ultimately, I would love to see a leadership change there, Martha.”
“I think a regime change is a worthwhile objective. That’s not something I think that’s part of the president or our Defense Department or the State Department’s objectives here, but I think right now, it’s about achieving our military objectives, and it’s very clear,” he said.
“Those have been identified by the president and his team and I think the folks in the region are making significant headway in accomplishing that objective, and we want to make sure that we continue to support them, and continue to pray for our men and women in uniform and particularly … those families who have lost loved ones,” Thune concluded.
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