The sniping began as early as 2016, when the long-time senator publicly urged Trump to end his first presidential campaign. This occurred in the light of the Access Hollywood crisis, when audio recordings of Trump's sexist boasts were made public.
Even a few years later, after the deadly storming of the Capitol, John Thune directed scathing criticism at Trump.
"What former President Trump did to undermine trust in our electoral system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is unforgivable", he wrote in a statement.
The Same Goal?
Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly attacked Thune and dismissed him as a "rino" – a Republican in name only.
Now, the two must work together. Thune is, along with House Speaker Mike Johnson, a key person for Trump to get laws and initiatives through. Moreover, the Senate, where Thune was recently appointed majority leader after Mitch McConnell, is the chamber that questions and approves a president's ministers and candidates for other high posts.
So how will the collaboration between Maga leader Trump and the more traditional Republican Thune look like? Thune has described their relationship as "under development".
There is a line, we want to reach the same goal, he said recently to NBC.
But Thune did not want to commit to giving a thumbs-up to all of Trump's ministerial candidates, including vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy, whom Trump wants to see as health minister, and ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who has expressed Russia-friendly views, as national intelligence chief.
Tough questions will be asked, he promises.
Can Say No
Thune has let the world understand that he wants to help the president succeed, but that he also thinks he can say no to Donald Trump. The 64-year-old runner (once crowned Congress's fastest), economist, and pheasant hunter has also said that he will explain to Trump what is realistically achievable in the Senate.
This may be necessary in light of everything Trump wants to get through – from tax cuts to tightened border security and resources for mass deportations. Right now, congressional leaders are trying to agree on whether everything should be baked into one giant law or divided up.
Republicans have a majority in both chambers of Congress, but it is no landslide. And it is not certain that all will follow the party line in the divided party that houses representatives from the Christian right, libertarians, so-called Rockefeller Republicans who advocate for a free market and low taxes, and supporters of Trump's Maga agenda (Make America Great Again).
Formally founded: 1854
Symbol: Elephant
Originally the party that opposed slavery. One of its most famous profiles, Abraham Lincoln, became the party's first and the USA's 16th president in 1861. Through Lincoln's so-called emancipation proclamation, slavery was abolished in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War.
Currently, the Republican Party is strong in the South and in the US inland. It is a conservative, business-friendly party that traditionally advocates for low taxes and a small public sector. Republicans tend to have great confidence in the military and advocate for the right to bear arms. Many representatives are generally and on religious grounds opposed to same-sex marriage and abortion. In recent years, the party has increasingly come to be dominated by Donald Trump and his more protectionist Maga agenda (Make America Great Again).
Republican presidents since 1950:
Dwight Eisenhower 1953–1961
Richard Nixon 1969–1974
Gerald Ford 1974–1977
Ronald Reagan 1981–1989
George H W Bush 1989–1993
George W Bush 2001–2009
Donald Trump 2017–2021 and from 2025
