{"id":2387229,"date":"2025-01-07T07:18:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T12:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/thune-welcomes-trump-to-drive-the-gop-agenda-in-congress-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-01-07T07:19:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T12:19:30","slug":"thune-welcomes-trump-to-drive-the-gop-agenda-in-congress-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/thune-welcomes-trump-to-drive-the-gop-agenda-in-congress-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Thune welcomes Trump to drive the GOP agenda in Congress- Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthune-welcomes-trump-to-drive-the-gop-agenda-in-congress-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2387229&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is building \u200ba strong partnership with President-elect donald Trump, which he believes is\u2063 vital for advancing the Republican agenda in Congress. In a recent interview, Thune highlighted the importance of \u2062keeping Trump engaged, particularly given the challenges faced in implementing\u2064 his aspiring policies on taxes, energy, and immigration. Thune&#8217;s relationship with Trump marks a stark contrast to the previous dynamic between Trump and\u2064 Thune\u2019s predecessor, Mitch mcconnell (R-KY). With the \u2063official certification of Trump&#8217;s Electoral College win,\u200c Thune expressed optimism about future cooperation, acknowledging the need for unity\u200b among Republican lawmakers\u2063 to effectively push through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/desantis-releases-campaign-launch-video-twitter-launch-crashes-app-as-servers-strained\/\" title=\"DeSantis launches campaign video; Twitter app crashes due to server strain.\">key legislative initiatives<\/a>. As Trump adjusts his strategy to adopt \u2062a\u2062 more flexible approach to legislative packages,Thune remains focused on leveraging \u2062their collaboration\u200c to achieve early successes during the critical first 100 days of Trump&#8217;s presidency.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Thune welcomes Trump to drive the GOP agenda in Congress: &lsquo;We need him engaged&rsquo;<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1911851\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>EXCLUSIVE &mdash; <\/strong>Senate Majority Leader&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/john-thune\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Thune<\/a>&nbsp;(R-SD) is forging a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/stacey-abrams-voting-rights-pac-helped-group-that-pushed-voter-fraud-conspiracy-theories\/\" title=\"Stacey Abrams\u2019 Voting Rights PAC Helped Group That Pushed Voter Fraud Conspiracy Theories\">close working relationship<\/a> with President-elect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Donald Trump\">Donald Trump<\/a>, one that the new GOP leader sees as critical for the success of a Republican-controlled Washington.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>In an interview with the&nbsp;<em>Washington Examiner<\/em>&nbsp;on Monday, Thune touted his &ldquo;strong&rdquo; communication with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/this-is-a-rico-case-and-it-involves-potentially-the-incoming-president-of-the-united-states-assuming-hes-installed-tom-fitton-on-hunter-bidens-criminal-c\/\" title=\"\u201cThis Is a RICO Case and It Involves Potentially the Incoming President of the United States, Assuming He\u2019s Installed\u201d \u2013 Tom Fitton on Hunter Biden\u2019s Criminal Case\">incoming president<\/a> that starkly contrasted the icy relationship that Thune&rsquo;s predecessor, Sen.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3269511\/mitch-mcconnell-senates-longest-serving-leader-leaves-behind-historic-legacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mitch McConnell<\/a>&nbsp;(R-KY), had with Trump during his first term.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We were texting until midnight last night. I talked to him earlier today by phone. He&rsquo;s obviously very engaged,&rdquo; said Thune, seated in the office occupied by McConnell for 18 years. &ldquo;We need him engaged because he&rsquo;s going to be key to what the traffic will bear in both the House and Senate.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Hours earlier, Congress made Trump&rsquo;s Electoral College win official by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3277124\/trump-election-certified-congress-jan-6-session\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">certifying the results<\/a>. It&rsquo;s a normally mundane process that four years earlier was marred by the Capitol attack that further fractured McConnell&rsquo;s relationship with Trump and prompted his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, to quit the president&rsquo;s Cabinet.<\/p>\n<p>Thune&rsquo;s remarks during his first full week on the job underscored the level of engagement he expects Trump will have to expend to deliver on his campaign promises, even with a GOP-controlled Congress and White House. Under no illusion of the challenges ahead to implement Trump&rsquo;s ambitious agenda that includes contentious policies like taxes, energy, and immigration, Thune acknowledged that the &ldquo;politics of it is challenging.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks to the Washington Examiner at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2025. (Graeme Jennings\/Washington Examiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Congress can roll many of Trump&rsquo;s priorities into one or more so-called reconciliation bills that can usurp the Senate&rsquo;s 60-vote filibuster. But Republican leaders in both chambers have little wiggle room for dissension among their ranks, and there are limitations under Senate rules to the policies that can be included.<\/p>\n<p>Trump on Monday morning, following his late-night talk with Thune the day before, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3277068\/trump-softens-one-big-reconciliation-bill-open-two-track-process\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"softened his approach\">softened his approach<\/a> for one big reconciliation package and said he was &ldquo;open&rdquo; to a two-track process that Thune has advocated for in order to <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">achieve early legislative wins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thune has a four-vote margin, including Vice President-elect Sen. J.D. Vance as a tiebreaker. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will haze zero votes to spare until special elections begin to fill vacancies in April, marking a critical period in Trump&rsquo;s first 100 days with no room for error.<\/p>\n<p>The House&rsquo;s success, Thune predicted, &ldquo;is going to be largely dependent upon [Trump] bringing along Republicans, particularly with regard to things that we do through reconciliation.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s aware of that dynamic,&rdquo; Thune said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;ll be a need, I would say, for a real strong line of communication between the unified government, between the House, the Senate, White House.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Trump has already tested Republicans on several occasions, despite not yet moving back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He gave GOP lawmakers whiplash with the short-lived nomination of former Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz in November to be attorney general and again last month by airing eleventh-hour grievances over the size and scope of a stopgap funding bill that nearly caused a government shutdown. The spending snafu forced Johnson to play legislative jiu-jitsu that ultimately paid dividends when Trump last week phoned conservative holdouts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3275427\/mike-johnson-house-speaker-race-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"reelect him as speaker\">reelect him as speaker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thune described his relationship with Johnson as similar to that with Trump, and one that will be equally as important to pass conservative policies. He and Johnson are &ldquo;very realistic about what it&rsquo;s going to take to get things done.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Trying to figure out how to balance it all and understand what the limitations are in both the House and Senate, and based not only on our rules and our procedures but the political dynamics that we have at work. I think those are things that we are regularly communicating about,&rdquo; Thune said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks with the Washington Examiner during an interview in his Senate office on Monday, Jan. 6, in Washington, D.C. (Graeme Jennings\/Washington Examiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader, will remain in the chamber as a rank-and-file member for the remainder of his term that runs into January 2027. Although no longer occupying a seat at the leadership table, he&rsquo;s vowed not to sit on the sidelines and will use what influence he still garners in the GOP to combat growing foreign isolationism in the party.<\/p>\n<p>Thune said he intends to &ldquo;take full advantage of [McConnell&rsquo;s] knowledge and experience when necessary.&rdquo; But he also wants to chart his own path forward as the first person other than McConnell since 2007 to hold the reins of the Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3239592\/senate-democrats-embrace-filibuster-stonewall-trump\/\"><strong>FILIBUSTER FLIP-FLOP: SENATE DEMOCRATS READY TO EMBRACE THE TOOL TO STONEWALL TRUMP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>McConnell, after all, is no fan favorite of Trump, his base, and a conservative faction of GOP senators.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[We] obviously welcome his input, thoughts about how we can improve [and] do things better,&rdquo; Thune said. &ldquo;Sen. McConnell&rsquo;s always been a very <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/help-wanted-kansas-governor-recruits-staff-for-state-democratic-party-former-employees-have-described-a-toxic-workplace\/\" title=\"Help Wanted: Kansas Governor Recruits Staff for State Democratic Party. Former Employees Have Described A Toxic Workplace.\">pragmatic leader<\/a>, wants to get results, and knows what it takes to get there.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1911851\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1911851\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thune embraces Trump&#8217;s role in advancing the GOP agenda<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3115,"featured_media":2387230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/010624_THUNE-9-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4402,6203,23610,3634,32076],"class_list":["post-2387229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-congress","tag-gop","tag-thune","tag-trump","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/010624_THUNE-9-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2387229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2387233,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387229\/revisions\/2387233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2387230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2387229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2387229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2387229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}