Karoline Leavitt Returned in Full Force and John Thune Is Not Happy About Getting Taken to the Woodshed

John Thune has sat on Donald Trump's top legislative priority for months while Republicans control the entire United States Senate.

On Thursday, Karoline Leavitt finally said out loud what conservatives have whispered about Thune for weeks.

Thune fired back at the White House and pointed the blame somewhere that will make Republicans furious.

Leavitt Confirms What Trump Voters Already Suspected

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stood behind the podium Thursday and delivered a line eight months of Senate inaction had been building toward.

"His patience is running out," Leavitt told reporters.

She said Trump wants the SAVE America Act – the citizenship and voter ID law that would end the Democrat cheating machine for good – passed before the August recess.

The House has already done its job, passing versions of the bill more than once this year.

The Senate has done nothing but stall.

Leavitt made the obvious point that Trump voters put Republicans in charge of both chambers of Congress, not just the Oval Office.

That is not a talking point.

That is a fact 53 Senate Republicans already knew when they took their seats.

Thune Snaps Back And Points The Finger At Democrats

A few miles away on Capitol Hill, John Thune was not happy.

Asked about Leavitt's comment, the Senate Majority Leader shot back with visible irritation.

"Maybe she or somebody else ought to get on the phone and get the votes," Thune said.

"It's 50 around here," he added.

Thune shifted the blame entirely, arguing GOP leaders should be pressuring the Democrats actually holding up passage instead of sniping at each other.

He closed by suggesting the White House start making calls of its own.

"If there are Republicans they think are gettable, get on the phone," Thune said.

It was a Senate Majority Leader publicly lecturing the President's own press secretary on whose job it is to whip votes.

Even Fox Business Is Calling Out Senate GOP Leadership

Larry Kudlow did not wait for Thune to fumble through another excuse.

The Fox Business host tore into a sitting Senate Republican on air, telling him to his face that the caucus has no idea what it is doing.

Kudlow said the messaging is non-existent and Republicans have lost their edge.

He is not wrong.

The SAVE America Act passed the House in February on a 218-213 vote.

Chip Roy wrote it, House conservatives fought for it, and Speaker Mike Johnson forced it through a bitterly divided chamber.

Since then it has sat in the Senate for nearly six months while Thune insists the votes simply are not there.

Fifty Republican senators back the bill.

Getting to sixty means peeling off Democrats who have shown zero interest in stopping noncitizens from registering to vote.

Trump has floated nuking the filibuster to get it done, and Thune has repeatedly told reporters there simply are not enough Republican votes to go that route either.

A RINO Playbook Trump Has Seen Before

This is not the first time a Senate Republican has stood between Donald Trump and his own agenda.

Mitch McConnell blocked this exact bill back in February, and Trump allies accused him of doing it out of spite for the President.

Trump spent 2017 locked in open war with McConnell over a stalled Obamacare repeal.

The country watched a sitting Republican president publicly threaten his own majority leader's job.

Thune is walking the same road now, reaching for the same excuse Senate Republicans always find whenever a floor vote might embarrass Democrats.

They do not need to kill the filibuster to force Democrats onto the record on voter ID.

They need a leader willing to make them do it.

Instead, showing ID to vote is common sense to the vast majority of this country, and Senate Republicans are still finding reasons to talk about passing it instead of actually passing it.

Every day Thune stalls is another day Democrats get to hide behind a Senate rule instead of explaining to voters why they oppose proof of citizenship at the ballot box.

The midterms are next year, and Republicans will be the ones on the ballot defending a Congress that controlled everything and delivered nothing on election integrity.

Trump handed Thune 53 seats and a mandate.

Thune handed Trump a press secretary having to fight his battles for him on national television.

Conservatives have watched this movie before with McConnell, and Thune just proved he would rather protect Democrats from a hard vote than deliver for the president who handed him the majority.

Sources:

• Jim Hoft, "UNBELIEVABLE! RINO John Thune FUMES at Karoline Leavitt After She Says Trump's Patience Is 'Running Out'," The Gateway Pundit, July 24, 2026.
• Reagan Reese, "Karoline Leavitt Says Trump's Patience 'Running Out' On SAVE America Act, Thune Fires Back," The Daily Caller, July 23, 2026.
• Fox News Staff, "Karoline Leavitt says Trump's patience with Thune is wearing thin," Fox News, July 23, 2026.
• Matt Vespa, "John Thune Fumes After Getting Roasted by Karoline Leavitt Over His Incompetence," Townhall, July 23, 2026.