‘RINO hack’: MAGA melts down over Thune’s SAVE America Act ‘betrayal’

MAGA is beside itself with fury after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he plans to bring the SAVE America Act to the Senate floor next week — but won’t use a procedural move that President Donald Trump and anti-voting activists have been demanding to ram the bill through.

Thune said the math simply isn’t there.

“We don’t have the votes, either to proceed a talking filibuster nor to sustain one if we got on one,” Thune told reporters Tuesday. “That’s just a function of math. There isn’t anything I can do about that.”

Translation: the bill will likely get a vote — and fail, an outcome that has triggered a full-blown meltdown among MAGA activists who had hoped for a dramatic Senate showdown.

Leading the charge is election denier and Trump’s former lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who has spent days unleashing increasingly unhinged posts on X accusing Thune of sabotaging the bill.

“Thune is either lying or doesn’t understand the Senate rules,” Mitchell wrote in one post. “Either way, it is bad for the GOP Leader … very bad.”

In another post, Mitchell demanded Thune force Democrats into a marathon floor debate.

“Thune can put the bill on the floor and make the Democrats talk about it for as long as possible,” she wrote. “OR he can portray the GOP as feckless and useless. Totally his choice.”

Mitchell warned that if Thune proceeds with a normal vote instead of the spectacle right-wing activists want, he risks destroying Republican support among the party’s base.

“Our base and, I would argue, voters well beyond the GOP base will be extremely unhappy and angry if the SAVE America Act goes down,” she wrote. “If Thune proceeds with that strategy, he is putting a big fat target on himself and his GOP leadership pals.”

Anti-voting activist Scott Presler, who Trump has praised for pushing the filibuster tactic, struck a similar tone.

“We want results — not theater,” Presler wrote.

Even the House Freedom Caucus weighed in, accusing Thune of deliberately setting the bill up to fail.

“If Thune plans to kill the SAVE America Act by bringing it to the floor at the 60-vote threshold, he isn’t fooling anybody,” the group wrote on X. “Americans don’t want performance theater.”

Ironically, Thune’s critics accuse him of staging political theater — even though the strategy they’re demanding would effectively turn the Senate floor into a prolonged spectacle.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) also joined the pile-on, warning that the bill will fail unless Senate Republicans adopt the talking filibuster strategy.

“If the Senate does not invoke the talking filibuster the SAVE America Act will fail,” Luna wrote. “Senate Leader Thune, the American people are counting on you.”

“This is a betrayal of Republican voters that will never be forgotten,” wrote the Fox News digital columnist David Marcus on X. “And, I firmly believe the Democrats just won both houses of Congress. Because, who cares? What’s the difference?”

Some MAGA influencers went further, calling for Thune to be removed as Senate leader entirely.

“John Thune is a RINO hack who should be replaced,” far-right commentator Nick Sortor declared on X, urging Republicans to elevate Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a leading proponent of the talking filibuster strategy. “There is NO USE for a McConnell 2.0 like John Thune. REPLACE THUNE before we lose our ENTIRE COUNTRY.”

Lee himself released a video urging activists to keep pushing the tactic.

“Make Democrats stand up, get recognized and speak,” Lee said. “If they want to filibuster the bill, don’t give it to them for free.”

Right-wing influencer Tomi Lahren delivered perhaps the most colorful reaction.

“Sack up or ship out, leader Thune,” she said in a video attacking the Senate leader. “He’s an embarrassment to the position, an embarrassment to President Trump, the party, and my home state of South Dakota. Perhaps he would be better suited riding off into the sunset on horseback alongside Kristi Noem than leading Senate Republicans.”

The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship and photo ID to vote in-person in federal elections and mandate routine voter purges, leading to millions of eligible voters becoming disenfranchised.

The bill has also become a vehicle for several other controversial proposals promoted by Trump, including a ban on universal mail-in ballots and attacks on the rights of trangender people. 

Those additions have complicated the bill’s prospects even within the Republicans. 

“I don’t want the federal government telling me that I can’t have mail-in voting or absentee ballot voting,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters Monday.

For Thune, however, the reality remains unchanged. 

Democrats have the votes to block the bill, and Republicans don’t have the votes to change Senate rules, no matter how loudly MAGA activists demand otherwise.