Post-primary GOP tension grows: Thune sends senators home without vote on Reconciliation bill over unease in group after Trump's support for Paxton and Cassidy's defeat

The waters are going down rough on Capitol Hill. Traditional Republican cainism, which seemed to be relatively under control with the supreme leadership of Donald Trump and the work of Mike Johnson in the House of Representatives and John Thune in the Senate, has been blown out of the water in the last few hours following the results of the latest primaries. Something in which the president's support for candidates with which to unseat his "enemies" who are currently in Congress and intended to seek re-election has weighed especially heavily.

Although Thune had already described as "concerning" Trump's targeting of several senators, such as the "disloyal" Bill Cassidy, the first serious warning came from Cassidy himself, after changing the direction of his vote and helping Democrats advance a bill limiting presidential war powers.

Johnson forced to call off a vote because of insufficient numbers.

Later Thursday, Mike Johnson was forced to suspend a vote on a Democratic initiative along the same lines. Democratic representatives complained that the speaker made the decision after seeing that he did not have enough numbers to reject it.

Recess until June in the Senate

at the end of the day, Thune decided to send senators on recess until June, according to several reports. Asked if it was due to discomfort in the conservative caucus at what they see as Trump's inferences, the majority leader acknowledged that "it's hard to divorce anything that happens here from what’s happening in political atmosphere around us. You can’t disconnect those things."

Statements by JD Vance, stressing that Trump's support for the Texas attorney general over Sen. Cormyn was because Paxton had demonstrated "being there for the country"did not please many conservative senators, who lamented that he seemed to single out a lawmaker who has also responded to the president's calls.

An ominous outlook for moving Trump's agenda forward

Thune himself disassociated himself from the president's support and again publicly endorsed Cormyn. At the expense of what happens in November, congressmen will remain in their seats at least through January, which seems to promise a serious fight to push Trump's agenda forward with lawmakers who will have nothing to lose and eager to pass the bill to the president.