Senate Majority Leader John Thune insisted this week that “bygones were bygones” between himself and president — but drew clear policy distinctions between the two during an exclusive sitdown with The Post.
“We have a very good relationship,” Thune, 64, said Thursday from his Capitol Hill office, but quickly took issue with some of the president’s most ambitious spending cut plans, calling Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth call for annual 8% cuts to the U.S. military budget unrealistic.
“I don’t see that happening. I think that that’s obviously going to be subject to what Congress has to say,” he said Thursday from his office on Capitol Hill, noting that something like Hegseth’s “Iron Dome for America” would not come cheap.
“If you’re going to achieve that, you have to raise the top line [spending],” said Thune, who replaced the ailing Sen. Mitch McConnell in November.
President Trump has vowed that popular entitlements like Medicaid would be spared from the Department of Governmental Efficiency chopping block, but Thune appeared considerably more open to entitlement cuts.
But it is unlikely Department of Governmental Efficiency head Elon Musk’s goal of axing $1 trillion in federal spending could be achieved without hitting the popular spending programs, Thune said.
“It’s hard to see how, given the fact that entitlements now represent and if you include interest on the debt, entitlement, 73% of the federal budget,” Thune said.
But Thune — who famously called on Trump to drop out of the 2016 race — also called himself a “big supporter of DOGE” and the radical spending cuts it had promised.
“I think you have to be willing to go places that we haven’t gone before,” he said.
The South Dakota Republican is staring down a possible government shutdown next month and what will likely be contentious budget bill negotiations, and days ago, the president endorsed a budget proposal from House Republicans over the rival Senate one preferred by Thune — without any advance warning.
“We’ve known all along,” he preferred the House version, said Thune — who Trump once ripped as a “RINO” — Republican in Name Only and called for a primary against him in 2022.
On the foreign front, Thune disagreed with Trump’s declaration that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a “dictator.”
“I wouldn’t characterize it that way,” said Thune, who also disagreed with Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine began the war with Russia.
And was skeptical about removing sanctions on Russia.
“The sanctions are there for a reason. They’re there to try and help be a remedy for bad behavior,” he said.
He also reaffirmed the US commitment to mutual defense of NATO nations, days after reports in German media said a withdrawal in Eastern Europe was a discussion point during negotiations between Russia and the United States Tuesday in Riyadh.
Thune expressed wariness about his Democratic counterpart New York Democratic Chuck Schumer, calling him “a very political creature.”
“I think he’s, he is very motivated by politics,” Thune said.
Thune’s capitol leadership office — complete with wood burning fireplace — was richly adorned with paintings of former Republican presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, which hung directly over his desk.
There was no painting of Trump.
“We’ll get around to it,” Thune said.
