The next Senate majority leader will officially be decided by 53 Republican senators via secret ballot Wednesday morning. But senators are bracing for the vote on Mitch McConnell’s successor to be unofficially swayed by just one man who has, so far, kept conspicuously quiet: Donald Trump.
“The President can do whatever he thinks is right,” Sen. Mike Rounds told NOTUS of Trump potentially weighing in. “But there are pitfalls.”
According to senators who spoke to NOTUS, there are drawbacks to Trump making an endorsement. His preferred candidate could lose — and senators may unintentionally make Trump look weak. Sen. Kevin Cramer said Trump weighing in would constitute an uncomfortable “breach” of the separation of powers. And, perhaps most troubling, offering his endorsement could ignite a rocky relationship between the upper chamber and the president.