Senate Majority Leader John Thune offered a lukewarm response Monday to President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the federal gas tax should be suspended — even as several GOP lawmakers embraced the idea amid a global oil supply crunch.

“I’ve not in the past obviously been a fan of that idea,” Thune told reporters. “But, you know, I’ve got some colleagues out there who think it’s a good idea, and so we’ll hear them out.”

As the war with Iran keeps millions of barrels of oil from transiting the Strait of Hormuz daily, Trump endorsed the idea of a gas-tax holiday during a Monday CBS News interview.

“We’re going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in,” he said.

Thune has long been cool to suspending the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax, telling reporters earlier this year that he didn’t know that it “is going to lower [gas prices] by a lot.”

He added that reopening the Strait of Hormuz would “normalize gas prices as much as anything” and that suspending the gas tax could negatively impact the federal funding for highway projects.

But after Trump endorsed the idea Monday, several House and Senate Republicans voiced support, with some introducing legislation to suspend the gas tax.

Thune said Monday that “we’ll see where our members are, and if the president wants to make an argument in support of that, I’m sure everybody will give him a chance and hear him out.”

A gas tax holiday also has some Democratic support, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued Monday that Americans need even more relief — without explicitly opposing the idea.

“Senate Democrats will support real action to lower costs. But let’s not pretend 18 cents of gas tax relief per gallon makes up for the damage Trump created,” Schumer said. “Eighteen cents isn’t $1.50, which is how much the price of gas has gone up since the war started.”

NEW YORK — Rep. Pat Ryan is backing state Assemblymember Alex Bores to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, making him the latest member of the New York delegation to weigh in on one of the state’s most competitive primary elections.

In making his endorsement, obtained exclusively by Blue Light News ahead of its formal announcement, the Hudson Valley Democrat cited the high-profile AI fight that’s become a central theme of the race as a key reason for backing Bores.

“A handful of the richest people in the history of the world are spending millions to defeat him because they’re terrified of a true leader with the courage and the expertise to take them on,” Ryan said in his endorsement, referring to spending against Bores by a pro-artificial intelligence super PAC. “That’s all the proof I need to know I’m on the right side. With courageous leaders like Alex paving the way, we can and we will win this fight.”

Ryan’s rationale for backing Bores underscores just how much the debate over the future of artificial intelligence has dominated the race to represent one of the wealthiest, most highly-educated congressional districts in the country. And Ryan isn’t the only one who based his decision at least in part on Bores’ record on AI.

When the United Federation of Teachers endorsed Bores last week, union president Michael Mulgrew predicted he “won’t back down” as “Big Tech billionaires” try to “silence him.” Our Revolution, a group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), praised Bores in its endorsement for not being “afraid to name or take on the oligarchy that’s rigging the system against working people.”

The millions of dollars in spending against Bores, an alum-turned-critic of data analytics company Palantir and a sponsor of the AI safety RAISE Act in the state Legislature, has also drawn an influx of money from regulation-friendly AI and tech-affiliated groups to boost him.

In Bores’ first ad of the campaign, which he released Monday morning, he highlights beating “Trump and his megadonors to pass the toughest AI safety law in the nation.”

Bores’ campaign said that both he and Ryan “share a belief that the next Congress must take decisive action to regulate artificial intelligence before this transformative technology outpaces the rules meant to govern it” — a debate that continues to rage on in Washington and globally.

Bores is viewed as one of the top contenders for the 12th District, which covers a large swath of Manhattan. He’s up against Assemblymember Micah Lasher, Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and anti-Trump commentator George Conway, as well as a handful of lesser-known challengers. Public polling has been sparse in the race, and internal polls from earlier this year don’t show a clear frontrunner.

Ryan is Bores’ first endorsement from a sitting member of the New York delegation; he previously earned the support of former Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Steve Israel.

Many prominent Democrats have rallied around Lasher, who has a long career in New York politics. That includes Nadler — his former boss — as well as retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez. He also has the backing of Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, both of whom he worked for.

Other members of the New York congressional delegation have not had much of a public presence in the primary. But Schlossberg has the backing of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose support he touted in his first campaign spot.

Ryan, who first won his swing seat in the Hudson Valley in 2022 and has been floated as a contender for higher office, is making an effort to boost his national profile by supporting candidates with public service backgrounds. Bores said in a statement that the Democratic Party will be “lucky” if Ryan is “its new face.”

The top House Democrat guaranteed a victory for his party in the November midterms in a message to lawmakers Monday, seeking to settle nerves after a pair of redistricting-related court decisions threatened to hand several seats to Republicans.

“Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives in November,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in the “Dear Colleague” letter.

Jeffries also announced a Thursday House Democratic Caucus meeting to discuss “the steps Democrats are taking to advance the largest voter protection effort in modern American history.” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, will help lead the briefing.

“Given the highly unfavorable political environment confronting House Republicans, the extremists will not meaningfully benefit from their scandalous gerrymandering scheme,” Jeffries said. “Quite the opposite. Democratic enthusiasm and resolve have grown more intense.”

The Virginia Supreme Court struck down a new voter-approved map Friday that would have created four Democratic-friendly districts. The Supreme Court earlier this month limited the effect of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that gives Republicans leeway to redraw majority-minority districts in the South.

Jeffries called these “blatantly undemocratic court decisions” but added “the failed GOP majority will not be able to gerrymander themselves back into power.”