Texas Senator John Cornyn Criticizes Trump's Leadership Style

A Texas Republican senator who lost his battle for re-election after Donald Trump endorsed his opponent in a primary runoff is joining the list of Republicans trashing Trump’s leadership style and decision-making.

Sen. John Cornyn said the president “seems to revel in chaos,” often appearing to make decisions purely based on the opinions of the last person he talked to, in a frank assessment to Semafor.

“[Trump] can and will change his mind depending on the next person he talks to on the phone,” Cornyn told the outlet.

“The president seems to revel in chaos, which is so different from any other leader that I’ve ever seen. I don’t know about you, but I like to minimize the chaos in my life,” Cornyn added to the news outlet.

“He just seems to revel in it. We’ve seen even recent evidence of it on the DNI,” he added, referring to Trump’s choice of relatively inexperienced loyalist Bill Pulte to serve as acting director of National Intelligence in the wake of Tulsi Gabbard stepping down.

He also indicated more concern with the president’s recent actions than members of the Senate have let on publicly, explaining that he’d questioned acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about what the former Trump personal attorney would do if the president asked him to perofmr an illegal act. Blanche is nominated to succeed Pam Bondi as Trump’s next attorney general.

Blanche told Cornyn that he’d resign if that happened, the Texas senator told Semafor.

Cornyn also previewed how he would be working to keep Republicans in control of the Senate through the November midterms. The senator gave a harsh outlook for his party’s chances, telling the news outlet that Republicans were trailing or running in close races in places where easy victories should be possible. One of those races is Texas, where Cornyn said that his onetime primary rival Ken Paxton would have trouble raising enough money to defeat James Talarico in November’s general election.

“I don’t know how Paxton raises the money he’s going to need to run against Talarico — who’s got unlimited resources — in the next four and a half months,” Cornyn told Semafor. “And while Talarico is definitely a weirdo, you know, take your pick.”

Still, while he says Texas is in danger of being scooped up by Democrats, Cornyn won’t be getting involved after being burned by Donald Trump. The president endorsed Paxton after Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other Republicans spent weeks if not months urging him to back Cornyn for re-election, seeing him as the safer bid to protect a GOP majority.

“The president picked Paxton, and he’s got $350 million dollars. I think he can spend his money,” the senator said. “I’m going to try to help in other places.”

Cornyn’s remarks, even without him departing fully from his Republican loyalties, represent a nightmare dynamic for the Senate Republican caucus. Undercutting Republican boasts about the strength of the MAGA brand and the president’s base of support heading into the beginning of election season, Cornyn is making it clear that a major rift between the president and the establishment wing of the Senate GOP has formed, even as Thune attempts to explain away the mixed messaging coming out of the Hill and the White House.

His comments come as the chamber is mired in debate about the path forward for renewing FISA and its key Section 702 provisions, which national security hawks say is of extra importance while the World Cup is taking place across America. The Senate lacks the votes to pass a renewal bill given Trump’s insistence that it also contain legislation aiming to sharply reduce mail-in voting and enact voter ID reforms. Democrats are also refusing to provide any votes for the bill while Bill Pulte, a Republican political operative, is sitting in the role as Director of National Intelligence.

Trump has spent months leaning on Thune to go around Democrats by removing the legislative filibuster, which requires most bills to clear a 60-vote threshold. But Thune has repeatedly denied those demands.