Senate GOP frustrations grow as Trump blocks Republican victories

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Republican senators are growing tired of the White House throwing curveballs into things they want to get done.

For example, many Republican senators want a now-lapsed surveillance law that allows intelligence agencies to spy on foreign threats to be reauthorized.

The problem? They need Democratic support to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

President Trump has now twice thwarted efforts to win over that support.

The first time he named Bill Pulte, the controversial head of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who had no intelligence experience, as acting director of national intelligence. Democrats and Republicans alike howled in protest.

Trump backtracked by formally nominating Jay Clayton, a more acceptable nominee to both parties, for the role at the end of last week.

But hours before a confirmation hearing for Clayton, itself quickly scheduled, Trump changed the game again, suddenly announcing he was delaying the nomination and demanding senators attach his sought-after election security legislation to the intelligence reauthorization.

One Republican senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said there is widespread frustration among Republicans with Trump’s surprise move.

“Because we get things on the track, and then you know, somebody throws something off, puts a penny on the track, and derails the train,” the senator said. “It’s not that easy to get 53 people going in the same direction. So, yes, it is disruptive to the process.”

It’s far from the first time Trump’s last-minute moves have derailed the plans of Republican senators.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is retiring and has frequently criticized the White House and Trump, told reporters Wednesday this is just the latest time the president has blocked a GOP victory.

“It’s undermining our ability to produce the very results he wants,” Tillis told reporters Wednesday.

Tillis mentioned a funding package for immigration enforcement, on track to succeed last month until the White House announced the creation of a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” through the Department of Justice for people who felt they had been unfairly prosecuted.

Several Republicans revolted against that fund, holding up the immigration funding until the White House backtracked.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), too, was headed for passage with bipartisan support earlier this month until Trump’s appointment of Pulte.

The move infuriated Democrats and some Republicans, including Tillis, since Pulte had previously used his role to investigate Trump’s political opponents and has no intelligence experience. The subsequent vote to reauthorize FISA failed, and the authority expired, meaning intelligence officers have limited ability to gain access to adversaries’ data.

Fixing FISA was looking promising again once Trump announced Clayton as his new nominee.

But Wednesday morning, Trump said he was delaying Clayton’s nomination until a nominee for a different job was moved forward in the Senate, and that he would not sign any FISA extension that did not contain the SAVE America Act, a bill to require proof of citizenship to register to vote, which has failed repeatedly in the Senate.

“Look, we are not the manufacturing department of the Article 2 branch,” Tillis said. “We are the board of directors for the Article 2 branch. You start treating us like that, coordinating with us like that, we won’t have these embarrassing setbacks, so we can get back to the good work the president wants to accomplish.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has also become more vocal about his disagreements with the administration since losing his primary to a Trump-backed challenger last month. He said the whole situation holding up FISA is dangerous, especially during the World Cup and in the shadow of the war in Iran.

“There’s some frustration because now 702 is going to stay dark, and that’s a danger to the country,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday. “By tying all these together and then also saying, well, we got to pass the SAVE America Act, which we know we don’t have the votes for … We got to find a solution.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) questioned whether Trump’s decision came amid “sleep deprivation” as he travels abroad.

“Strategically it didn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

“One of the things may very well be, as I try to explain it in my own brain, sort of maybe a lack of trust or faith in [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune’s clear-eyed understanding of the sequence of things that have to happen.

“I think, when the president read that the Democrats hadn’t assured passage of FISA authorization prior to the fast tracking of Jay Clayton, he saw that as we lost leverage, and I think those of us that work in this institution understand Democrats want to support FISA — they largely do.”

Other Republican senators said the Democrats are to blame for holding up FISA as long as Pulte is in the director role. But any delay on FISA is a problem, they said.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who is also retiring, told The Hill that bringing FISA back online is critical and Republicans can’t “be distracted.”

“I think we need to focus on the fundamentals here and not get distracted by the Democrats not liking Bill Pulte, or not liking some other nominee, or the executive branch wanting to pull side issues into FISA,” Lummis said. “We need to decide ourselves, knowing that FISA will fail and the SAVE Act will fail if we pair them together, we, who have to vote on this, need to acknowledge that we can’t let that happen.”

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) told The Hill that he thinks Democrats should back FISA regardless of who’s in charge of intelligence.

“The Democrats shouldn’t be stopping us on FISA,” Hoeven said. “Just, I’m not sure exactly, you know, what the president’s strategy is on it. We’ll have to see.”

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Bill Pulte

Jay Clayton

John Cornyn

John Thune

Kevin Cramer

Thom Tillis

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