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President Donald Trump on Wednesday will face a Senate GOP hungry for victory ahead of key midterm elections and desperate for a way forward as controversies and emergency presidential decisions derail their march to November.
Trump has not been to the Capitol to meet with the Senate GOP in more than a year, and much has changed in the dynamic between him and Republicans in the upper chamber.
He successfully fired two incumbents, Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, temporarily derailed the Republican package of $70 billion, and meanwhile, thwarted a bipartisan effort to reauthorize the nation’s controversial surveillance powers.
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President Donald Trump arrives for a briefing at the Mack Trucks Lehigh Valley Operations Center in Macungie, Pa., on June 23, 2026. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“The question is, do we want to win the midterms?” Cornyn said. “And my question is, how do we all get on the same page and unite instead of fighting among ourselves?”
There are several items likely to be on the table on Wednesday, including a cooperation memorandum with Iran and the next steps to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
But Trump’s main focus is expected to be the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, a permanent voter ID and proof of citizenship law that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., has been telling the president Republicans don’t have the votes to pass.
“We’re just going to talk about SAVE America,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “We have to get – we have to pass the SAVE America Act, which is voter ID, which is proof of citizenship, etc. We have to pass it. So we’re going to have to talk about that and a lot of other things.”
When asked about Thune’s repeated claims that Republicans have a problem with numbers, Trump said, “You know, he’s a leader. John is a leader. That’s what being a leader is all about.”
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“Look, we must be able to get proof of citizenship when you vote,” he said. “Otherwise, we don’t have an election. We have to be able to get voter ID. So John is the leader, hopefully he can get the votes.”
Trump’s appearance in the Senate was prompted by an invitation from Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who spoke before the meeting, laid out a roadmap for legislative goals for the next six months, including the passage of the SAVE America Act.
“We must be very clear about who is good and who they are,” Scott wrote in a letter to his colleagues. “We have to show what Republicans stand for and what Democrats stand for with action, not rhetoric.”
Thune acknowledged Scott’s legislative guidance, and said that when the GOP comes together “as a family, as a group, that we can look at some of the things that we all want to work together on to try to do before, before this election.”
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., speaks during a press conference for Senate Republicans at the US Capitol on June 2, 2026, led by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, RW. Wow. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.)
“And there are things that I believe will create a record of success for us to run for election,” said Thune. “And that will enable us to take the argument to the American people that will persuade them that they want to keep many people here in Congress, in the United States Senate, and in the House of Republicans to work with this president to do good things for this country.”
Republicans’ struggles to pass the package are twofold. Democrats won’t support it, and Republicans aren’t united to pass it — points that have been proven several times on the Senate floor in the past few months.
The SAVE America Act has become a hot topic among Republicans, especially since a number of supporters, encouraged by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, continues to seek a viable path forward that many in the GOP don’t see.
It led to a fight on social media and an outburst during a closed Senate GOP lunch. Whether that particular frustration plays out in Trump’s presence remains to be seen.
“I think, many people will want to talk,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.,. “We have a lot of people who like to talk. That’s why we have a lot of meetings that have to be by email. But I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said it would likely be a “low-key” lunch with the president that wouldn’t inflame tensions between the branches of government.
“I’ve never had a meeting with any president and senators that was contentious and negative, but maybe that’s not a good meeting,” Hawley said.
Some of Trump’s critics and senior leaders in the Senate GOP hope that there can be a respectful discussion focused on their success in the past year and a half, and what future wins might look like in the few months left between June and November.
“I want us to focus on all the good things we say, because too many people focus on our differences and not what we have achieved,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, RN.C..
