A closed-door meeting between President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans on Wednesday reportedly grew tense during an exchange between Trump and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., with one GOP senator later saying the confrontation became so heated they worried it could turn physical.
Trump met privately with Republican senators to rally support for the Save America Act, his election integrity proposal.
During the meeting, the president reportedly said he would not sign bipartisan housing legislation unless Congress first approved the election bill.
According to attendees, Trump also told Cassidy that he did not mind if the Louisiana senator opposed him on most issues, except impeachment—an apparent reference to Cassidy’s vote to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The exchange intensified during a luncheon discussion as senators debated Trump’s authority to conduct military operations involving Iran.
Cassidy, who lost his Republican primary to a Trump-backed Republican challenger and is set to leave the Senate at the end of the year, reportedly stood and pointed his finger at the president as the disagreement escalated.
One senator feared the two men were about to fight, according to sources who spoke to the Washington Times.
“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on. It was supposed to last four weeks; it’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on,’” Cassidy told reporters after the blowup.
“I can’t tell you that’s verbatim, because obviously I was speaking,” Cassidy added.
“I lost my temper. That’s not appropriate. It’s the Irish in me,” he added.
“But I matched his tone and his volume, and it went back and forth,” Cassidy noted further.
Cassidy’s relationship with Trump has become increasingly strained in recent weeks following the senator’s defeat in Louisiana’s Republican primary.
Cassidy finished third behind Rep. Julia Letlow and State Treasurer John Fleming, who advanced to a runoff to determine the party’s nominee for the Senate seat.
Both candidates were pro-MAGA, but Trump backed Letlow and she won the run-off last week.
Earlier this week, Cassidy joined senators in approving a resolution aimed at limiting the president’s war powers, further highlighting the policy differences between the two Republicans.
Several GOP senators have also told Trump that his Save America Act faces steep obstacles in the Senate, where Democrats retain enough votes to block most legislation through the filibuster.
In response, Trump has continued urging Republicans to eliminate the filibuster, arguing that doing so would allow the Senate to pass legislation with a simple majority rather than the current 60-vote threshold.
Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn took some parting shots earlier this month at fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) over SAVE America Act votes.
The latest round of infighting erupted when Cornyn responded to critics by calling conservative election-integrity activist Scott Presler a “grifter” in a post on X.
The remark drew attention because Presler had actively campaigned for Ken Paxton during the Texas Republican Senate primary, where Paxton defeated Cornyn last month.
Presler has built a large following among grassroots conservatives for his voter-registration and election-integrity efforts, making Cornyn’s criticism particularly notable within Republican circles.
Cornyn also urged Lee, in a separate post on X, to lay off publicly blaming fellow Republicans—such as Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota—for the failure of the GOP elections bill to gain sufficient support within the conference.
“Mike, I am a co-sponsor and have repeatedly voted for this, but you don’t have the votes,” Cornyn wrote in an early Friday morning post.
“Leader John Thune can’t change that. It is math,” he added.
“Try focusing on Democrats instead of Republicans. Republican on Republican attacks are hurting our chances to win the majority in November,” he said on X.
That led Lee to fire back at Cornyn in another X post.
“On what planet is this an attack on Republicans? We have majority support for the bill. In this rare circumstance, we should put it on the floor and keep debating it until it passes,” he wrote.
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