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{"id":24463,"date":"2026-06-18T12:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-gets-louder-as-trump-gets-pushier\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:02:20","slug":"capitol-agenda-gop-gets-louder-as-trump-gets-pushier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-gets-louder-as-trump-gets-pushier\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: GOP gets louder as Trump gets pushier"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>President Donald Trump has pushed Senate Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/17\/trump-war-on-senate-republicans-00966490\" target=\"_blank\">to the brink of their patience<\/a>, and they\u2019re not staying quiet about it.<\/p>\n<p>The president in recent weeks has been firing out missives Republicans view as bad decisions that undermine their ability to deliver legislative wins as the midterms approach.<\/p>\n<p>The latest irritation was the early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday, where Trump upended GOP plans to quickly confirm Jay Clayton as the new director of national intelligence and revive a key surveillance bill that the president already derailed earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president\u2019s timing and communication needs improvement,\u201d Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said. \u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate. It throws a kicker into the system when we get going and then we have to readjust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s U-turn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/17\/trump-delay-jay-clayton-dni-senate-hearing-00964723\" target=\"_blank\">on Clayton<\/a> is one of several fronts where senators have pushed back in recent weeks. Republicans also foiled plans to fund part of his White House ballroom project in a recent immigration enforcement funding deal and forced the Justice Department to abandon plans for a $1.8 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sen. John Kennedy answered \u201cNo\u201d when asked if Trump takes senators into consideration: \u201cHe wants what he wants, and until he gets it, he just keeps pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement last year after breaking with Trump on policy legislation, said the dynamic is \u201cundermining our ability to produce the very results he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The frustrations are also bubbling up as the president is trying to sell an Iran peace deal that a section of his party despises (more on this below).<\/p>\n<p>To Trump, the solution is simple: None of this would matter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/18\/barely-check-the-box-trying-trump-frustrated-gop-isnt-following-his-roadmap-00965797\" target=\"_blank\">if Republicans would just follow his lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has handed Republicans a midterm playbook they\u2019re unlikely, and unable, to heed: get rid of the filibuster, fire the Senate parliamentarian and pass an election security overhaul known as the SAVE America Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf everyone just follows his lead, follows the blueprints he\u2019s laid out, and runs on the record that he has, then I think we\u2019ll fare well,\u201d said a senior White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s controversial demands, however, have been unfortunately timed as lawmakers have been on the precipice of delivering policy goals. His naming of Bill Pulte as acting DNI, for example, blew up a brewing three-year deal on reauthorizing a key piece of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. His announcement of the DOJ payout fund delayed and nearly killed a critical immigration funding bill.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his relationship with Trump was \u201cfine\u201d amid the public turmoil. He later explained in an interview the White House and Senate Republicans do a \u201cfair amount of coordination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut sometimes you get surprised,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a business model the White House employs, and we\u2019ve had to figure out how to be adaptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 TRUMP&#8217;S IRAN DEAL RACKS UP BIPARTISAN CRITICS: <\/b>Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/17\/trump-attacks-skeptics-who-want-a-more-comprehensive-deal-with-iran-00965720\" target=\"_blank\"><u>panned the details of the memorandum<\/u><\/a> of understanding Trump signed in hopes of ending the conflict in Iran. Sen. Bill Cassidy called the agreement \u201cthe worst foreign policy blunder in decades.&#8221; \u201cBefore the war, the strait was open, Iran was being crushed by sanctions, and 13 service members were still alive,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenBillCassidy\/status\/2067318744552997372\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Cassidy posted on X<\/u><\/a>. \u201cNow, 13 Americans are dead, families have paid billions at the pump, sanctions will be lifted, and the bombing has stopped.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 SENATE GOP COOL ON &#8216;RECON 3.0&#8217;: <\/b>Senate Republicans have taken <a href=\"http:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/06\/reconciliation-republicans-trump-congress-00966498\" target=\"_blank\"><u>no concrete steps toward advancing<\/u><\/a> Trump\u2019s ask for a $350 billion party-line bill to fund the military and notch other conservative policy victories. Senators acknowledge the tough path for marshaling 50 votes behind such a measure on their side of the Capitol just months before the midterms. Members and aides in interviews this week said it was becoming clear any \u201cReconciliation 3.0\u201d would be a House-led effort.<\/p>\n<p><i>Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Katherine Tully-McManus, Megan Messerly, Alex Gangitano and Myah Ward contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump has pushed Senate Republicans to the brink of their patience, and they\u2019re not staying quiet about it. The president in recent weeks has been firing out missives Republicans view as bad decisions that undermine their ability to deliver legislative wins as the midterms approach. The latest irritation was the early-morning Truth Social [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}