WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Senate Republicans who were berated by President Donald Trump over opposition to his war in Iran held a late-night vote Wednesday to try to appease him, rejecting a war powers resolution a day after a similar measure passed. <\/p>\n
Trump harangued GOP senators face to face earlier in the day for allowing a vote to block his war in Iran<\/a> on Tuesday, further escalating a feud that has diverted GOP efforts to focus on election-year affordability issues and brought much of the chamber\u2019s business to a halt. He exchanged particularly harsh words with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy<\/a>, one of four Republicans who had voted with Democrats on the measure. <\/p>\n Hours later, though, Cassidy was invited to receive a personal briefing on the war at the White House from Vice President JD Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff. Cassidy then returned to the Capitol to vote against a separate but nearly identical war powers resolution. <\/p>\n \u201cI want to thank Vice President Vance and Special Envoy Witkoff for the thorough briefing this afternoon on Iran. I appreciate the quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns,\u201d said Cassidy, who lost reelection<\/a> last month after Trump endorsed his opponent, in a post on X. <\/p>\n Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who has repeatedly voted with Democrats to halt the war, voted present this time \u201cto give the President more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace,\u201d he said on X. The measure failed 47-50-1 just before midnight on Wednesday, and the Senate then left town for a two-week recess. <\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether the move will be enough to appease Trump, who had called the Republicans \u201closers\u201d for voting against his war and had called Cassidy a \u201clunatic\u201d at the lunch after their tense exchange. But the vote was a clear signal to the president from Republican senators who still want to placate him, despite increasing tensions in recent weeks and his decision Wednesday morning to reverse himself and delay signing a housing bill that received overwhelming bipartisan support. <\/p>\n Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and a small group of his Senate GOP colleagues called Trump after the vote. Thune told reporters that the president was \u201cpleased with the outcome.\u201d <\/p>\n Trump later thanked Thune in a social media post and noted that Cassidy and Paul had switched their votes. \u201cThis vote puts Iran on notice!\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n The war powers measure blocked by the Senate on Wednesday was on a separate track from the nearly identical resolution adopted on Tuesday, which had also been passed by the House. Both votes were largely symbolic, and the measures do not carry the full force of law. <\/p>\n Cassidy had sharp words for Trump <\/p>\n Invited by Florida Sen. Rick Scott to speak at a GOP luncheon in the Capitol, Trump had signaled ahead of time that he would use the closed-door meeting to push senators to pass his proof-of-citizenship voting bill<\/a>. But the conversation was more focused on Tuesday\u2019s vote on war powers. <\/p>\n Most Republicans stayed quiet. But Cassidy stood up and defended his vote. <\/p>\n \u201cI stood and said, \u2018You have not told the American people what\u2019s going on,\u2019\u201d Cassidy told reporters after the meeting. \u201cThis was supposed to last four weeks, it\u2019s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved.\u201d <\/p>\n The two men \u201cwent back and forth,\u201d Cassidy said, and he \u201cmatched his tone and volume.\u201d Cassidy said that he eventually de-escalated, but he did not want to be bullied. <\/p>\n \u201cI am voting for war powers until I get a briefing,\u201d he said afterward. <\/p>\n Trump repeatedly told Cassidy to sit down, according to a person familiar with the private meeting who was not authorized to discuss it. At one point, the president called the senator a \u201clunatic.\u201d <\/p>\n Publicly, Trump said afterward that they had \u201ca really great meeting.\u201d But he hinted at the discord. <\/p>\n \u201cWe like everyone in the room,\u201d Trump told reporters on his way out. \u201cI don\u2019t like a few people, but that\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n The luncheon capped weeks of friction between Trump and Senate Republicans and added a new layer of frustration as Tuesday\u2019s vote was the first time the Senate had adopted a war powers resolution on the Iran war. Trump made clear he was in no mood to compromise before it even started, calling off a scheduled signing ceremony on a housing bill that passed both chambers overwhelmingly this week<\/a> and that GOP lawmakers were touting as an election-year achievement. <\/p>\n Trump reverses on housing bill <\/p>\n Republican senators were eager for a conciliatory meeting with the president after escalating tensions in recent weeks. But Trump upended their plans when he declared on social media just beforehand that he wouldn\u2019t sign the legislation until they send him the SAVE America Act, his bill to require proof of citizenship for all voters. <\/p>\n North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn\u2019t know why Trump is holding the housing bill \u201chostage\u201d for the voting bill that \u201cwill never pass in this Congress.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt makes no sense to me,\u201d Tillis said as he walked into the luncheon. <\/p>\n Thune said the housing legislation, which aims to lower costs, is \u201can affordability issue,\u201d and that \u201deventually I hope he finds a way to sign it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if Trump might veto the legislation or if the late Wednesday night vote will change his outlook. But by rejecting a public bill signing, Republicans worry that Trump is indicating a level of indifference to voters\u2019 affordability concerns heading into November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n Trump and Senate Republicans have been at odds <\/p>\n Trump\u2019s move on the housing bill is his latest reversal after weeks of being at odds with Senate Republicans. <\/p>\n Trump has blocked the Senate from confirming one of his own nominees<\/a>, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project<\/a> despite opposition and forced them to defend the Iran war<\/a> even as they question the strategy and endgame<\/a>. <\/p>\n Trump has also helped whittle down his own support in the Senate after endorsing primary challengers to two GOP incumbents who were previously reliable votes for his agenda \u2014 Cassidy and Texas Sen. John Cornyn<\/a>. Both men have become more critical of Trump since losing reelection. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re going to win the midterm elections, we need to get on the same page,\u201d Cornyn said ahead of the meeting. \u201cWe\u2019re not on the same page now, and that I think is dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n Trump pushes Thune on SAVE America Act <\/p>\n Trump has pressed Republicans for months to kill the Senate filibuster and focus on the proof-of-citizenship voting bill,<\/a> even though Thune has repeatedly told him that neither has the votes<\/a>. <\/p>\n While Thune remains popular in his conference and cordial with the president, he has spent much of his time lately telling Trump what he doesn\u2019t want to hear. Thune said Tuesday that while Trump and some in their conference want to see the voting bill pass, \u201cit\u2019s just not realistic.\u201d <\/p>\n Thune devoted weeks of floor time to the voting bill earlier this year and has said he supports it. But he has repeatedly said there aren\u2019t enough votes to scrap the filibuster that triggers a 60-vote threshold to pass most bills in the 53-47 Senate. And Democrats are uniformly opposed to the bill. <\/p>\n \u201cI think people at some point have to come to grips with that,\u201d Thune said. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Kevin Freking contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Senate Republicans who were berated by President Donald Trump over opposition to his war in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":891948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[7373,3881,42098,327,69,2239,90,57,2055,83,6087,2066,25227,8121,2934,50,80,26390,14637,13226,16538,313941,322,67,8128,132,68,333,76450,93],"class_list":["post-891947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-2026-elections","tag-ap-top-news","tag-bill-cassidy","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-indicators","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-jd-vance","tag-john-cornyn","tag-john-thune","tag-legislation","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-rand-paul","tag-rick-scott","tag-steve-witkoff","tag-thom-tillis","tag-trump-hub","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-congress","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-voting","tag-voting-rights","tag-washington-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116811262715600410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}