Top Republican Lashes Out at Karoline Leavitt Over Trump Tantrum

Politics admin July 23, 2026 0 Comments

Top Republican Lashes Out at Karoline Leavitt Over Trump Tantrum

Republican Senate leader John Thune took a swipe at White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt after she called him out over President Donald Trump’s stalled agenda.

The 28-year-old press secretary said during her press briefing Thursday that Trump’s “patience is running out” with Senate Republicans over their repeated failure to pass the SAVE America Act.

“The House did its job, the Senate needs to do its job too,” she added.

Thune, 65, was quick to return fire when asked about Leavitt’s comment.

“Maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes. Right? It’s 50 around here,” the Senate majority leader said, according to The Hill.

“Instead of pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats,” he continued with evident frustration. “And if there are Republicans they think are gettable, get on the phone.”

The public spat between the White House and GOP leadership underscores the challenges facing the election bill in the Senate, where four Republicans have joined Democrats to block it in previous votes, and the filibuster makes its passage all but impossible.

House GOP leaders attached the SAVE Act to the $1.15 trillion defense policy bill that the chamber narrowly passed Wednesday, but the measure faces long odds in the Senate.

Trump turned up the pressure on Thune during Wednesday’s rally in Marietta, Georgia, where he said, “It’s like, the Senate is a place that you send things when you want them to die.”

“Mike Johnson and Congress have done a great job, but we’re having a hard time in the Senate,” he continued, calling for the termination of the filibuster, which Thune and other Senate Republicans have opposed.

The 80-year-old president added that he is “trying to be nice,” before demanding at the end of his speech: “Everybody call John Thune at the Senate, he’s the leader of the Republican Party, and tell him to get this stuff approved.”

Trump has feverishly pushed the SAVE Act, which would put onerous new requirements on voters and county election officials by requiring voters to prove their citizenship in person upon registering to vote, with additional burdens placed on women who changed their last names after getting married.

An estimated 9 percent of eligible voters—about 21.3 million Americans—either lack readily available proof of citizenship, such as passports or birth certificates, or cannot obtain those documents within a day, according to by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at University of Maryland and the Brennan Center for Justice.

States would also be required to submit their voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security as part of the law.