In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.The Senate is supposed to leave town on Aug. 7 for its five-week recess, and a growing number of Republicans have decided that would be a scandal. President Donald Trump wants the chamber to stay in Washington until it passes the SAVE America Act, his proof-of-citizenship voting bill. If that doesn’t work, he wants Majority Leader John Thune to abolish the filibuster and pass it with 51 votes. What he does not appear to want is anyone pointing out that neither of those things is going to happen.
The demand arrived on Truth Social, where Trump wrote that Thune “should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT.” He closed with the observation that “stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH,” which is one way to open a negotiation with your own party’s Senate leader.A group of senators fell in line and went straight to social media to make the case. Roger Marshall of Kansas kept it simple: “Cancel August recess, pass the SAVE America Act.” Tommy Tuberville of Alabama went bigger, warning that “if we don’t have secure elections, we don’t have a country,” and reminding everyone that the midterm elections are 100 days out. Punchbowl‘s Jake Sherman reported on X that Ted Cruz supports canceling the recess: “We should do anything and everything, including working through the August recess, to get that done.” Mike Lee skipped the speech and filed the paperwork, telling Thune on X, “I hereby object to any effort to put the Senate into recess in August” until the bill passes, adding, “Do not assume you have my consent. You do not.”It’s your atypical grandstanding that politicians engage in regularly, but all of the talk in the world doesn’t change the most critical aspect: the math.The SAVE America Act requires 60 votes to invoke cloture and go to the floor for a vote. Republicans hold 53 seats. Every Democrat opposes the bill, which means it needs the filibuster gone to pass on a party-line vote, and the filibuster is not going anywhere. Thune has said so repeatedly, and this week he put a number on it. The White House summoned roughly 20 Republican senators to lean on them directly about killing the 60-vote threshold. According to Thune, 15 of them said no. “This is not an open question,” he told reporters. “It’s just a fact, and the facts don’t change.” A bill that cannot clear 60 votes cannot be rescued by keeping tired senators in the building through August.Thune, who is a cosponsor of the SAVE Act, has settled on a response that is equal parts patience and exhaustion. “If I thought there was a path for getting a result, I’m all for it,” he told the Capitol press corps on Monday, counting on his fingers as he went. “We voted on it one, two, three, four, five times already. We had it up on the floor for an extended period of time. Show me how this ends. What’s the picture of victory at the end?” Later, he put it more plainly: “You could stay here till Christmas,” and the outcome would be the same, because “Democrats aren’t voting for this, I’m just telling you. And the Republicans are not getting rid of the legislative filibuster.”Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) takes questions from reporters while walking to his office on Capitol Hill, Monday, July 27, 2026. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)
