Senate Majority Leader John Thune broke with President Donald Trump on several key policy issues including data center construction, beef imports and the Senate filibuster in interviews this week.
Thune’s recent comments — made two weeks before the Senate resumes business following a recess — are the latest example of a widening policy gulf between himself and the president. Trump has increasingly voiced frustration with Thune’s leadership, particularly as the president’s priority elections bill stalls in the upper chamber ahead of the midterms.
While Thune has trod carefully in his criticism of the president in recent months, he broke with the president on a number of new policy positions this week.
On Monday, Thune implied the White House could do more to support party members engaged in tight Senate races across the country — particularly that of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose race against Democratic nominee James Talarico was shifted left to a “toss up” last month by the Cook Political Report. Spending by Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC is still quiet in Texas, even after the president endorsed Paxton in May over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.
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“We’ve got to make sure that those races are resourced,” Thune, who backed Cornyn in the primary, told Fox News. “We are certainly hopeful that the president and his team and MAGA Inc. will be engaged in some of these races. Some states are incredibly expensive.”
Thune’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an interview with a local station in Thune’s home state of South Dakota, the Senate majority leader also broke further with Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, casting doubt on their repeated assertions that Republicans expect to keep control of the House and Senate after November’s midterm elections.
“I worry about that for sure,” Thune said Tuesday. “I’m a realist, and I don’t ever try and sugarcoat things. I think it’s a competitive environment right now, I think we got the highest-quality candidates.”
He also reiterated that Republicans do not have the votes to undo the filibuster, which Trump has repeatedly called on Thune to set in motion to advance his voter ID bill. Their disagreement reached a fever pitch in July when then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump’s “patience is running out” with Thune.
The Senate majority leader also broke with Trump on local issues: Thune — whose home state ranks fifth in the nation for its number of beef cows — was critical of the administration’s recent move to pause U.S. tariffs on ground beef imports. The new policy drew pushback from some cattle farmers who worry it will undercut domestic beef prices amid a multiyear cattle shortage.
“He’s trying to lower beef prices, which I think we’re all supportive of. I just don’t think this is the way to do it,” Thune told local TV station Keloland on Tuesday. “We have a lot of beef producers here in South Dakota, they produce the highest-quality beef in the world, and we’re trying to build our herds back up.”
Thune pushed back on Trump’s recent call to “let data reign” and embrace the construction of artificial intelligence data centers — an increasingly unpopular stance across both parties that has entered multiple midterm campaigns. The president said Monday that Americans should accept the construction of data centers in their areas unless “they want to end up being backwards and poor.”
The Senate majority leader said companies should not be building those facilities in areas where residents are resistant, although he acknowledged the United States’ race with China to dominate the AI market. South Dakota in March passed a law putting limits on industry construction.
“These entities need to be self-sufficient,” Thune said. “They ought to be able to take care of their own utilities, their own power, and that ought to be a given any place they go in the country. But they shouldn’t be going places where there isn’t support for them at the local level.”
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