On June 4, as Senate Republicans finally began debating their immigration enforcement bill, President Donald Trump called Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., with a demand: Attach the SAVE America Act to the legislation.

During the call — according to a source familiar with the conversation — Thune told Trump there wasn’t enough support for the hardline voting bill. But, as a concession to the president, he said Republicans would try again.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., drafted an amendment exactly as Trump requested. And Republicans put it on the floor for a vote. 

It failed 48-50, with four Republicans joining Democrats in opposition.

Despite one of those stubborn realities in the Senate — math — Trump has continued pressing for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship and photo identification to vote while sharply restricting mail-in voting.

Trump’s insistence on pursuing a bill that lacks enough support, and his tendency to fault Thune when it fails, has only deepened tensions between the president and the Senate majority leader.

One GOP senator, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal dynamics, said Trump and Thune “have an awkward relationship.”

“It’s awkward for everybody,” the lawmaker said.

Sources stressed that Trump and Thune still maintain a functional working relationship. One person familiar with their interactions said they don’t speak every day, but “when they need to talk, they talk a lot.” 

Still, the limited communication is increasingly becoming a problem. 

One of the clearest signs of that dynamic came last week, when Trump instructed his director of national intelligence nominee not to show up for a confirmation hearing, prolonging a lapse in U.S. spying authority. That morning, Thune said he hadn’t heard from Trump.

When Thune was asked last Wednesday why Trump had unexpectedly derailed his nominee’s hearing, the South Dakota Republican’s frustration was palpable.

“Good question,” he said.

Part of Trump’s discontent with Thune appears to be rooted in the contrast with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. While Johnson often advances Trump’s priorities through the simple-majority House, Thune must navigate a Senate where most major legislation requires 60 votes. As a result, Thune frequently finds himself delivering unwelcome news about what can and can’t pass.

“Thune and the speaker obviously have different ways of communicating with Trump, both in style and in substance,” the source familiar with the Trump-Thune dynamic said.

“When it comes to Thune, he doesn’t sugarcoat the truth,” this person added. “He tells the president exactly what he needs to know — the raw and unvarnished truth — even if it isn’t always the answer the president wants to hear.”

The GOP senator told MS NOW that in private, Trump has at-times performed a “gentle ribbing” of Thune. And another Senate Republican said the president has asked his allies for assessments of Thune’s job performance, though this senator noted that question is “not new.”

“He does that all the time to everybody,” this senator said of Trump, explaining that the president is “always crowdsourcing.”

Lawmakers and aides, nonetheless, recognized the “unique relationship” of Trump and Thune, as one source put it. 

“They’re just different people,” the source familiar with their relationship said. “They both understand the mission that is ahead of them, sometimes in different ways. But I think they both understand that, if you’re going to get from point A to point B in the roles that they are in, they need each other.”

Still, the growing tension between the two is hard to ignore. And that tension has only been exacerbated by Trump’s pressure campaign to pass the SAVE America Act.

Trump escalated those efforts last week, writing in a middle-of-the-night Truth Social post that he wouldn’t vote to extend the U.S.’ warrantless spying powers unless the voting bill is attached, ensuring the continued lapse of the key national security tool.

Adding insult to injury, Trump then once again called on the Senate to abolish the filibuster — yet another norm-busting directive that doesn’t have the votes.

Trump labeled anyone who doesn’t want to nuke the 60-vote threshold “a FOOL,” before warning that Thune and GOP senators “will go down on the wrong side of History” if they don’t kill the filibuster.

Republican senators — even the ones who are staunch Trump allies — are starting to get frustrated with the president’s inability to accept the realities of the Senate.

During a closed-door Senate GOP lunch on Wednesday, hours after Trump tied the SAVE America Act to FISA, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., stood up and bemoaned that Trump was “taking this out on Thune,” a source told MS NOW.

Nobody in the room backed up Trump, and Thune didn’t respond to the comments, the sources said. 

After the lunch, Kennedy publicly defended Thune.

“I know the president pretty well, and I think he really likes Thune,” Kennedy told reporters. “I just think the president is a salesman. And what do salesmen do? They sell.”

On the SAVE America Act, Kennedy noted that the Senate had tried to pass it a number of times to no avail.

“I want a Porsche for my birthday. I’m not going to get it,” he said. “That’s not the way this place works, and that’s just — it is what it is. I don’t blame the president for trying, and I can assure you, if John Thune could deliver the SAVE Act, he would.”

And on Thune himself, Kennedy openly wondered how anyone could dislike the man. “If you don’t like John Thune, you don’t like golden retrievers,” he said.

But the disagreements have piled up in recent weeks. 

Trump’s proposed anti-weaponization fund delayed a major immigration bill after drawing widespread GOP opposition. His appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence helped derail a bipartisan surveillance deal. And his decision to pull intelligence nominee Jay Clayton from a confirmation hearing further complicated Republican efforts to resolve the standoff.

The White House, for its part, has tried to deflect from the apparent tensions.

During an interview with Punchbowl News last week, James Braid — the director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs — said the president and Senate leader have “a big disagreement over the filibuster,” but added that they are still working toward the same objectives.

“There is a point of contention over some of this stuff, but ultimately these members and the president have a good relationship, a strong relationship, and he’s a trusted partner in helping us carry out our agenda,” Braid said.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson also told MS NOW that the White House and President Trump have “enjoyed working closely with Leader Thune and Senate Republicans.”

“We look forward to continuing these close relationships and fulfilling President Trump’s priorities that Americans elected him to enact,” Jackson said.

But while the president is becoming increasingly frustrated with Senate Republicans, Senate Republicans are becoming increasingly frustrated with the president.

“Is Trump burning goodwill on the hill? Absolutely,” a senior GOP staffer told MS NOW.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who called Thune “a good leader,” said the recent White House-Congress friction is a byproduct of Trump not understanding the Senate.

 “I don’t think he understands it, and quite honestly, I don’t think he cares,” she said.

“Some of the things that we’ve seen out of the president and the White House have not made the leader’s job any easier,” Murkowski added. “But I still think that Leader Thune conducts himself in a way that is ultimately very respectful.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, agreed. He said, “John’s the best leader we could possibly have right now.”

And when asked if Trump’s helter-skelter style was making life harder for Thune, Cassidy suggested it was actually a larger issue.

“The president’s inconsistency is making it harder on the nation,” he said.

Ali Vitali, Lillie Boudreaux and Jack Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.

The post ‘It’s awkward for everybody’: Inside the Trump-Thune relationship appeared first on MS NOW.

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