New questions have emerged about whether President Donald Trump has lost sway with some Republican senators as they mull action related to a number of thorny foreign policy matters after they have clashed with Trump over the Iran war, the White House ballroom and his targeting of respected incumbents.
Trump’s Senate headwinds could show up most often on matters of foreign policy because second-term presidents typically devote more time to global affairs as they fight lame-duck status domestically. The president this week celebrated the primary defeat of Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and endorsed Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a heated primary runoff with Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Both Cassidy and Cornyn are widely respected by their Republican peers, creating new intraparty unrest.
Josh Holmes, a longtime former senior aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wrote this week on X that “the Senate GOP is going to be pretty ungovernable for the next couple months,” adding: “Unenviable task for White House office of legislative affairs.”
Any agreement the Trump team reaches on Iran would likely fall short of the Barack Obama-era pact that Trump scuttled during his first term, Richard Haass, a former senior National Security Council official under Republican President George H.W. Bush, told MS NOW on Thursday.
