Thune rejects Trump’s calls to nix the filibuster and Senate recess

By Natalie Hausmann

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 10: U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks during a news conference following a weekly Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on March 10, 2026 in Washington, DC. Senate Democrats and Republicans both took questions on negotiation progress on funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S.-Israel conflict in Iran. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 10: U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks during a news conference following a weekly Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on March 10, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is not willing to nix the Senate filibuster to pass President Donald Trump’s SAVE America Act.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Thune addressed Trump’s most recent demand that Republicans forgo the legislative roadblock and upcoming recess in favor of pushing his sweeping anti-voting bill through the finish line — an endeavor that’s been unsuccessful without a 60-vote supermajority.

“We could stay here until Christmas,” Thune said, according to multiple reporters at the Senate House. “The Democrats aren’t voting for this, I’m just telling you. And Republicans are not getting rid of the legislative filibuster.”

Thune said while he has long been a supporter of the bill he’s a co-sponsor on, he does not see a path forward without the votes needed to pass it.

“We voted on it two, three, four, five times already,” Thune told reporters.

Thune’s response comes hours after Trump called the senator out by name on Truth Social to tell him he “should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’” until he can get enough votes for the SAVE America Act. While Thune has said he supports the bill, he also has consistently said there isn’t enough support in the Senate to either pass it with 60 votes or to do away with the filibuster.

“If we’re going to be sitting here in endless quorum calls, I don’t know if that’s in anybody’s best interest,” Thune told the Capitol press corps. 

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine-R), who has also supported the bill in the past, voiced her opposition to canceling the Senate’s recess to keep pushing for it.

“I think staying in doesn’t change what would happen on the SAVE Act,” Collins said. “I don’t see how you get to 60 votes on it, and I say that as someone who supports the House-passed version of the SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship so that only Americans vote in American elections.”

The bill, which would enact strict documentary proof of citizenship requirements and photo identification to vote, as well as banning no-excuse mail voting, would potentially disenfranchise millions of Americans.

Last week’s House vote to greenlight a reconciliation framework, including $10 billion for election-related measures in line with SAVE America Act priorities, was one of the latest pushes for the bill. Thune has shown skepticism toward this approach too, favoring a different spending package altogether.

“Show me how this ends,” Thune said Monday. “What’s the picture of victory at the end?”

This story has been updated.