Trump sowed the seeds for that narrative last fall, when he urged Senate Republicans to end the filibuster to pass new election laws. But he’s more recently mounted a full-court press, refusing to take no for an answer after Thune told him the GOP votes aren’t there for that outcome.

The president nudged Thune at his State of the Union address in February as he repeated his unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud.

“We have to stop it, John,” Trump said from the lectern of the House floor.

Over the last week, his lobbying has gotten even more intense, with Trump announcing he won’t sign any bill, except for Department of Homeland Security funding, into law until the Senate sends the legislation to his desk. The SAVE America Act passed the House in February with unanimous Republican support.

“We’re going to push them to get it done, because I don’t think you can politically exist if you’re not going to do voter ID and these things. I don’t think the people in this country will stand for it,” Trump told House Republicans last Monday, calling it his “No. 1 priority” at an annual policy conference in Florida.

For now, the impasse is generating days of unwanted attention for Thune as Trump needles him to be a “leader” and eggs on House conservatives who are vowing to vote “no” on all Senate bills in solidarity with Trump.

But Trump is also drawing a connection to the midterm elections, creating the distinct possibility that if Republicans lose this fall, the president and his base will lay the outcome at Thune’s feet.

In his Monday speech, Trump warned of “big trouble” if the bill dies in the Senate and made that case directly to Senate Republicans in November, when he resumed his yearslong crusade against the filibuster.

At the time, he argued the midterm elections would be “rightfully brutal” and that Democrats were “far more likely” to win without the legislation.

Trump’s comments come as Democrats become increasingly bullish about their prospects this fall, with control of the House and possibly the Senate in reach. The president is fighting against historical headwinds for the party in power and, like President Joe Biden before him, is navigating voter anxiety about the cost of living in America.

Thune says those twin factors will determine control of Congress, telling the Washington Examiner that off-year elections are always a “little dicey” for a president in his second term.

“I think the midterms are gonna be about the economy, and that’s why we’re focused on that,” Thune said.

But Trump’s allies are making the case that Republicans need a reason to turn out, and that election reform is what will animate the base.

To critics, the near-singular focus on the SAVE America Act is meant to deflect blame away from Trump’s underwater approval ratings and political operation. The president was previously faulted for the candidates he endorsed when Republicans lost seats in 2022.

Mike Madrid, an anti-Trump Republican operative, said the president was setting Thune up to be the “fall guy” for a midterm loss.

“I mean, everybody’s got a turn in the dunk tank,” Madrid said. “It’s probably Thune’s turn. At some point, your number is picked, and this just might be his number.”

Madrid argued it would instead be the “self-inflicted wounds” of Trump that cost Republicans their majorities, naming tariffs, the war in Iran, and the aggressive tactics of federal immigration agents.

“He’s never going to take responsibility for creating this mess,” Madrid added, “and that’s the great irony – this is all a complete self-own, and everybody knows it.”

Thune is not the only Republican who has come under criticism over the SAVE America Act. A few GOP senators who oppose the legislation or view its passage as undermining the 60-vote filibuster have been on the receiving end of phone, letter, and email campaigns organized by outside activists.

But conservatives perceive the lack of action as Thune’s unwillingness, despite supporting the bill, to whip votes for a priority the base cares about. 

Thune, for his part, says he is simply delivering the “not so good news that the math doesn’t add up.”

“For better or worse, I’m the one who has to be the clear-eyed realist about what we can achieve here,” Thune said Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

For a while, Trump backed off his pleas to Senate Republicans, who generally like the filibuster and want it intact to block Democratic priorities down the road.

But Trump regained interest as conservatives asked Thune to dust off an old-school version of the filibuster that forces Democrats to hold the floor and speak if they want to prevent a bill from passing at a simple 50 votes. As of now, Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate, to Democrats’ 47.

Thune has agreed to replicate aspects of that “talking filibuster” and will bring the SAVE America Act to the floor as soon as Tuesday for what could be a week or more of debate. Still, the process is basically a messaging exercise, and it’s expected to be blocked by Democrats on a final vote.

There is popular support for voter ID, and centrists like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) back the requirement. But Democrats are almost universally opposed to a separate proof of citizenship provision in the bill, and have generally panned the legislation as an attempt at voter suppression.

The clash with Thune defies months of cooperation that helped Trump usher his Cabinet and signature tax cuts through Congress. The Senate most recently passed a housing bill to address affordability concerns, though Trump has signaled he could veto it over the SAVE America Act.

Thune acknowledged that “some days are better than others” regarding his relationship with Trump, something he painstakingly worked to rebuild after the president won the Republican nomination in 2024.

THUNE PLANS MOCK ‘TALKING FILIBUSTER’ TO CALM SAVE AMERICA ACT UPROAR

But he downplayed the idea of a wider rift, telling reporters Thursday that “differences of opinion” are natural within a party.

“You realize that in the end, you’re family and this is a team and we need the team to succeed,” Thune said. “You don’t always get 100% of what you want, but that’s part of the deal. It’s the nature of the beast, as my dad used to say.”