{"id":56306,"date":"2026-05-04T11:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/56306\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:53:08","slug":"tensions-between-thune-and-johnson-loom-over-immigration-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/56306\/","title":{"rendered":"Tensions between Thune and Johnson loom over immigration push"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weeks of bruising cross-chamber policy fights have blemished what has otherwise been a cordial and remarkably effective relationship between Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> (R-LA).<\/p>\n

Thune and Johnson have navigated razor-thin margins to pass major components of President Donald Trump\u2019s second-term agenda. But they\u2019ll need to quickly iron out the wrinkles in their relationship if they\u2019re to return later this month from recess and shepherd through another party-line reconciliation bill to fund their immigration enforcement priorities ahead of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to do what he has to do,\u201d Thune said of Johnson to the Washington Examiner. \u201cI know that, and he knows \u2026 the challenges we face over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, reflecting on a chaotic House week<\/a> filled with GOP infighting that still included major policy wins, conceded that \u201csometimes the process around here is cumbersome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey often analogize legislating to making sausage,\u201d Johnson told reporters. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to see it made. Sometimes it\u2019s an ugly process. Sometimes it\u2019s a long process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House ultimately passed the Senate\u2019s versions of DHS funding and a 45-day extension of Section 702 of the\u00a0Foreign Intelligence Surveillance\u00a0Act<\/a>, conclusions that House Republicans say are the latest cases of them being forced to \u201ccave\u201d to the upper chamber. The Senate\u2019s 60-vote filibuster is often to thank for that repetitive theme, but mounting frustrations in the House have more recently centered on accusations that Thune is capitulating to Democrats.<\/p>\n

Thune, Johnson, and their staffs still have weekly policy meetings to talk strategy. However, Senate leaders and staffers have become incensed by the airing of dirty laundry from their House counterparts on policy disagreements, particularly the public trashing of the DHS funding bill Johnson once called a \u201ccrap sandwich.\u201d The House passed it on Thursday, more than a month after the Senate did in late March. The measure funds most of the department except for immigration agencies. Republicans plan to fund those through the reconciliation process, which can bypass a Democratic filibuster.<\/p>\n

The day after a gunman allegedly targeted Trump and senior administration officials at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner, some in MAGAworld<\/a> even pinned the blame on Thune for undermining national security.<\/p>\n

In the eyes of senior Senate GOP aides, what was initially a shutdown caused by a Democratic filibuster to protest Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement agenda became a Republican \u201cself-own\u201d at the hands of the House. An aide granted anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes tensions urged the party to trade in the \u201cshort-sighted intraparty scuffles\u201d for unity to defeat Democrats in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans battling Republicans is exactly what Democrats want,\u201d a senior GOP aide said. \u201cHouse and Senate Republicans are on the same team, and the sooner we can get back to playing team ball, the better it will be for the party, our voters, and the rest of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mild-mannered Thune has, at times in recent months, traded his usual diplomatic reserve for more blunt rhetoric to counter criticism both from the House and what he has deemed an online \u201cpaid influencer ecosystem.\u201d He has referred to himself as the \u201cclear-eyed realist\u201d against calls from Trump and House Republicans to nuke the filibuster for the SAVE Act. Thune further called Johnson\u2019s push to include a central bank digital currency provision in FISA reauthorization a \u201cpoison bill\u201d that was \u201cdead on arrival\u201d in the Senate. The majority leader has also repeatedly pushed the House to stomach its concerns over the DHS shutdown and vote to reopen the department.<\/p>\n

\"SpeakerSpeaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), left, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), right, return to their offices after meeting with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite)<\/p>\n

Johnson qualified the weeks of inaction on DHS funding as a way of forcing urgency to pass the blueprint for the GOP\u2019s party-line immigration funding, which the House greenlighted last week. He told reporters that \u201cyou heard me trash\u201d the DHS bill after it was \u201chaphazardly drafted\u201d by the Senate and initially passed in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

Thune held his tongue Thursday following the House clearing the DHS funding by voice vote, a method of unanimous consent that House leaders previously condemned the Senate for using on the same bill more than a month earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d Thune said with a pause. \u201cI probably shouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), also reacting to the news from across the Capitol, called it a \u201cmiracle.\u201d <\/p>\n

DHS SHUTDOWN STRESS-TESTS JOHN THUNE\u2019S RELATIONSHIP WITH MIKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n

Just as Thune has his own challenges managing expectations with a 53-47 majority in a chamber that requires 60 votes to achieve nearly anything, Johnson must wrangle a conference more than four times the size and with only a one-seat margin, depending on absences. After all, Johnson\u2019s predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, lasted in the role less than nine months before being forced out by some of the same conservative hard-liners who act as a thorn in Johnson\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very unhappy with the Senate. That\u2019s what today was about, and that\u2019s the macro theme,\u201d said Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), lamenting Thune\u2019s handling of DHS funding and FISA reauthorization after they passed the House. \u201cUnfortunately, Leader Thune has allowed the Democrats to have way too much voice in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren Green and Hailey Bullis contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weeks of bruising cross-chamber policy fights have blemished what has otherwise been a cordial and remarkably effective relationship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[477,1080,491,493,475,478,494],"class_list":{"0":"post-56306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mike-johnson","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-government-shutdown","10":"tag-house-of-representatives","11":"tag-immigration","12":"tag-john-thune","13":"tag-mike-johnson","14":"tag-senate"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116516173779475702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}