Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and President Donald Trump have a rocky past. But the upper-chamber lawmaker has clearly put all that behind him. When he was chosen to lead Senate Republicans back in November, there were some widespread concerns about his and the president’s past disagreements. At the time, however, his fellow GOPers brushed it off, insisting that he’d work well with Trump. So far, he’s proving them right. Just a week into Trump’s presidency and a little less than a month into the legislative session, John Thune is showing himself to be a man on a mission.
John Thune Reborn
The rift between the president and the gentleman from South Dakota is well documented. After January 6, 2021, Thune called Trump’s actions “inexcusable.” He was the first in GOP congressional leadership to call for Trump to bow out of the presidential race after the Access Hollywood tape was released in 2016, in which the New York businessman spoke lewdly about women.
Trump, in turn, pressured GOP senators to back efforts to primary Thune in 2022 and oust him from Congress. Before January 6, when Thune said Trump’s goal of challenging Biden’s confirmation would “go down like a shot dog” in the Senate and urged his colleagues not to back the president’s efforts. “RINO John Thune, ‘Mitch’s boy,’ should just let it play out,” Trump tweeted at the time.
But all of that is in the past. Thune won his position by doing two things. First, he campaigned with and financially supported his fellow Republicans in the Senate. Second, he made peace with Trump and began openly supporting him. Before the new Congress was seated and Trump was inaugurated, Thune promised to forge ahead on Trump’s agenda. When some of the Donald’s close allies suggested he oppose Thune’s rise to Senate Majority Leader, he supported the lawmaker instead. Now, a week into the fresh administration, it’s clear Thune intends to keep that promise.
Legislation and Leaders
From confirming Trump appointees to passing actual legislation, Sen. Thune has been busy. He landed his first big legislative win on Friday, January 17, with the passage of the Laken Riley Act.
The act requires the Department of Homeland Security to arrest immigrants in the US illegally if they’ve been charged here with theft or a violent crime. The House initially passed the bill and sent it on to the Senate, where it was slightly amended. Thune worked with his counterpart across the aisle, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to work out an amendment process both sides could agree on, then managed to win over 12 Democrats to break ths filibuster and pass the amended bill, even though he ultimately lost Schumer’s vote. The House went on to pass the new version Wednesday, January 22, 263-156, with 46 Democrats crossing the aisle.
It might not have been a hard bill to pass, but it was still significant for Thune and Trump, as it gives both their first legislative win – and on immigration, an issue the president made central to his agenda, to boot. The president is set to sign the bill into law soon, and it’ll be the first of the new administration.
While John Thune and congressional Republicans acted quickly to send the Laken Riley Act to Trump’s desk, the upper chamber’s real focus has been on confirming Trump’s cabinet nominees. So far, Marco Rubio as secretary of state, John Ratcliffe as CIA director, Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, and Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security – and the Senate invoked cloture on Scott Bessent’s confirmation to be Treasury secretary shortly after the Noem vote, meaning he’ll likely see a vote after the Senate reconvenes at noon on Jan. 27.
“We get them in place as quickly as we possibly can,” Thune explained during an interview with Fox’s Maria Bartiromo. “But we are on the schedule that we laid out and one that I think enables these folks to get through the process in time to deliver for the president and for the American people.”
When asked if Senate Democrats were slowing the process, Thune explained that they were trying, but that the confirmations were ahead of schedule, based on what he called the “Obama Standard.” President Barack Obama saw 12 of his Cabinet nominees confirmed in 15 days. “So we are pushing hard,” Thune explained.
The Easy Way or the Hard Way
While there are procedural rules in the way and Democrats do have, as the minority party, ways of dragging things out, the majority leader promised to “keep moving aggressively, moving quickly, forcing people to stay and take votes on weekends.” And that’s precisely what he did this past Saturday, January 25.
Democrats dragged their feet on Ratcliffe’s confirmation vote, effectively running out the clock on the rest of the week rather than allowing time for additional confirmations. And it cost them their nights and weekends.
“Do we want to vote on these folks on Tuesday or vote on them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Because that’s what we’re going to do,” Thune declared. Sure enough, he forced a cloture vote for South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s appointment to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Senators invoked cloture – that is, ended the discussion phase and queued up the final vote – 61-39 Friday night at almost 10 p.m. The Senate convened again Saturday morning to hold the confirmation vote, which quickly went in Noem’s favor 59-34. With a majority of 53, Republicans didn’t even need the Democrat votes beyond overriding a filibuster for presidential nominees, thanks to the back-and-forth “nuking” of the process by both parties in recent years.
Immediately after the Noem vote, the Senate voted 67-29 to invoke cloture on Scott Bessent’s confirmation and adjourned until “12 noon Monday.” Presumably, this is when the Senate will carry on with the mostly inevitable process of establishing the president’s cabinet – or else.
“This can be easy or this can be hard,” Thune explained. Democrats can either take him seriously and start playing along, or they can keep trying to delay the inevitable – at the cost of their days off. Either way, John Thune is lase- focused on achieving as much of Trump’s legislative and appointments agenda in as little time as possible. He’s a man on a mission.
