JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
This week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune played a critical role in making sure that President Trump's massive tax and spending bill made it out of the Senate, setting up a final vote in the House.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Thune has done an incredible job.
SUMMERS: That's Trump praising Thune at an event at the White House in May, but their close relationship is a dramatic reversal from their days as virtual political enemies. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has more.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: In the aftermath of the 2020 election, John Thune and Donald Trump were on the outs.
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JOHN THUNE: You know, I've never second-guessed the outcome of the 2020 election.
GRISALES: After the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Thune said Trump's actions after his reelection loss were, quote, "inexcusable." Here's Thune during that same 2021 PBS News interview.
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THUNE: And it's created a lot of distrust of our elections.
GRISALES: Trump hit back at Thune, saying he was weak and should be primaried. However, by the time Trump won the GOP presidential primary earlier last year, Thune said it was time to get behind him. In March of 2024, Thune and his wife, Kim, made a fateful visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to put an end to the strife. It's formed the building blocks for where the relationship stands today.
LISA HAGER: His ability to be open has been helpful in getting on better terms with President Trump.
GRISALES: That's Lisa Hager, South Dakota State University politics professor. She says Thune's Midwestern style is disarming, even to his worst enemies, and his pragmatic approach to policymaking helped unite the two.
HAGER: He's very methodical. He's very good at looking at the lay of the land.
GRISALES: More than 20 years ago, Thune broke onto the national political scene with a Senate upset win over top Democrat Tom Daschle. He's pivoted on multiple occasions to match the current political landscape. South Dakota Republican Mike Rounds says Thune's appeal to Trump is clear.
MIKE ROUNDS: For the president's part, he wanted to work with somebody who was willing to coordinate with him and that had the same interests, long-term interests, for the country in mind.
GRISALES: That includes policy to cut taxes and grow the economy. Rounds says they got here by building wins together, and that's key for the president. That started this year with a wave of controversial nominees who might have had a rough time winning confirmation, but Thune cleared the way.
ROUNDS: The vast majority of all of his nominees have been accepted, and those that were not accepted, the president was able to withdraw them himself.
GRISALES: Many say that led to delivering the ultimate win this week - Senate passage of that megabill carrying the bulk of Trump's domestic agenda. During that Senate debate, Thune and Trump talked regularly by phone, text and in person. Thune visited with the president at the White House sometimes weekly or more.
JOHN BARRASSO: I've been with him behind closed doors, and they're very, very close.
GRISALES: That's Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso. He says Trump and Thune together landed votes for the megabill. Here's Barrasso.
BARRASSO: We work closely together, and, of course, from the standpoint of the whip, they're both key members of the whip team (laughter), and they're both very persuasive with the members.
GRISALES: That also meant Trump frequently met one-on-one with Senate holdouts who eventually folded under the immense pressure. It was the vote of one final senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, that Thune secured in the GOP's favor. For Thune's part, he tells NPR that being on the same page with the president makes all the difference.
THUNE: We're both headed to the same destination right now, and that's at - you know? I've said this before; there's an alignment of incentives, and we've got reasons to work together, and it's working well.
GRISALES: Thune's relationship with the president will get tested again and again, and the results will dictate how much a deeply divided party will get done together.
Claudia Grisales, NPR News, the Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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