Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s true colors are showing again…
Despite President Trump making it very clear that the SAVE America Act needs to get passed as soon as possible and urging Senate leadership to nuke the filibuster, Sen. Thune is completely refusing to take action.
Sen. Thune told NBC News that a talking filibuster is “more complicated and risky” than people realize and that he doesn’t believe it would work.
Take a look:
🚨 UPDATE: Senate Leader John Thune casts major doubt on passing the SAVE America Act through a talking filibuster, says it's "very hard" to see it working
"Having studied it and researched it pretty thoroughly, you have to show me how, in the end, it prevails and succeeds."… pic.twitter.com/JJ0MihmVQ2
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 10, 2026
UPDATE: Senate Leader John Thune casts major doubt on passing the SAVE America Act through a talking filibuster, says it’s “very hard” to see it working
“Having studied it and researched it pretty thoroughly, you have to show me how, in the end, it prevails and succeeds.”
“What people don’t realize is it’s all unlimited debate and also unlimited amendments.”
“What I’ve said before is you have to have unified support, not only in support [of] the SAVE America Act, on the process to be able to defeat amendments that would undo legislation the first place.”
“We can’t find a piece of legislation in history that’s been passed that way.” — Thune to NBC News
First of all, what Sen. Thune said about there not being a single piece of legislation to get passed due to a talking filibuster simply is not true.
Scott Pressler pointed out just one example that Thune apparently missed in his “thorough research”:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed because of the talking filibuster.
I found that information in 10 seconds with a simple Internet search.
— ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) March 10, 2026
It seems more like Sen. Thune just doesn’t want to change the Senate rules, not that he’s convinced they won’t work.
He went even further in an interview with ABC News, where he flatly stated that any changes to Senate rules to pass the SAVE Act are “not going to happen.”
From ABC News:
Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday reiterated that there would not be changes to Senate rules in order to pass a Republican-led election reform bill that President Donald Trump has demanded be sent to his desk.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” Thune said when asked by ABC News about whether Senate rules requiring 60 votes to advance most legislative matters could be altered in light of Trump’s new pressure campaign to pass the SAVE America Act, which would change voter ID requirements ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“The president clearly is very interested in getting the SAVE America bill up and voted on, although he wants a modified version of it, and so we’ll do our best to do that,” Thune said. “But the one thing I’ve said all along is, and I’ve told him and others, that I can’t guarantee an outcome. I can’t guarantee a result. If the result is only achieved by nuking the legislative filibuster, we don’t have the votes to do that and so that’s not a — that’s just not a realistic option.”
Thune’s comments come after Trump on Sunday threatened to withhold his signature on all legislation until the SAVE America Act is delivered to his desk.
What a backstabber.
Folks are not happy with Sen. Thune on this one:
Why am I seemingly the only person who thinks Thune should have been removed a long time ago? The idea that Thune will support Americans is like grabbing onto a lead weight expecting it to be your floatation device.
— American_Revelator 🇺🇸 (@A_Revelator) March 10, 2026
If it’s too “hard” work for @LeaderJohnThune, then perhaps he should step down, and let a real man become Leader.
— Scott J Mira (@ScottJMira) March 10, 2026
This is infuriating. I’m so done with Thune and the GOP.
— Mindy Metcalf (@MindyMetcalf44) March 10, 2026
This all came after President Trump made a vow not to sign any new legislation — with the notable exception of funding the DHS once Democrats finally come to an agreement — until the SAVE America Act is passed.
Today, President Trump doubled down on that threat:
🚨 HOLY CRAP. President Trump says he won't sign a single law before the SAVE America Act even if it takes SIX MONTHS!
"If it takes you 6 months, I'm for not approving ANYTHING! I don't think we should approve ANYTHING until this is approved!"
Trump's DONE with the games!
The… pic.twitter.com/rtPBFBP8HH
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 9, 2026
HOLY CRAP. President Trump says he won’t sign a single law before the SAVE America Act even if it takes SIX MONTHS!
“If it takes you 6 months, I’m for not approving ANYTHING! I don’t think we should approve ANYTHING until this is approved!”
Trump’s DONE with the games!
The only thing Trump would sign is to reopen DHS during the shutdown.
With or without John Thune’s help, the SAVE Act must get passed.
It’s a shame that Sen. Thune seemingly doesn’t want to do it the easy way.
I’m inclined to think this:
He absolutely could get it done; he just doesn’t want to.
— A Ruthless (@ARuthless8) March 10, 2026
But, President Trump is very serious about getting this done ahead of Midterms.
Today, he announced that he will be personally getting the names of the Senators who are preventing it from passing and “push them to get it done.”
Watch this:
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump confirms he's going to get the NAMES of the 4-5 GOP senators refusing to pass the SAVE America Act
"We're gonna have to PUSH the senate! You have 4 or 5 senators!"
"EVERY time I go out, 'SAVE America Act, sir!' That's ALL they talk about!"
"Send it… pic.twitter.com/vShPZDRxOO
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 9, 2026
Backup here if needed:
BREAKING: President Trump confirms he’s going to get the NAMES of the 4-5 GOP senators refusing to pass the SAVE America Act
“We’re gonna have to PUSH the senate! You have 4 or 5 senators!”
“EVERY time I go out, ‘SAVE America Act, sir!’ That’s ALL they talk about!”
“Send it up there and you will WIN THE MIDTERMS!”
“4 or 5 Republican senators, you will have to explain them to me. We won’t get into that, but we will push them to get it done.”
ADVERTISEMENT“I am making my biggest plea TONIGHT. It will GUARANTEE THE MIDTERMS! If you don’t get it, BIG TROUBLE.”
This is the exact same thing @ScottPresler said. Get it done!
Pressure from President Trump has worked like a charm many times!
Hopefully, President Trump will be able to persuade a few Senators to get it passed very soon.
Trump will get it passed. It’s too important not to!
— crazy gram (@mowsh51) March 9, 2026
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