Trump Calls Cassidy a Lunatic During GOP Senate Lunch

It's not every day you hear a sitting U.S. senator and the president of the same party screaming at each other in a room packed with their colleagues. That's exactly what went down Wednesday at the Capitol, when President Trump and Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy got into a shouting match at a Republican lunch that was supposed to cool everybody off.

It did the opposite. One person in the room described it as "a total cluster f#ck." Another lawmaker rated the intensity a "7 out of 10" and said the two men sounded like "two boys on recess that are yelling at each other over a foul." The whole meeting ran about 70 minutes, and most of it was Iran.

It Started With One Question

The day before the lunch, the Senate had passed a war powers resolution telling Trump to pull U.S. forces out of the fight with Iran. Four Republicans crossed over and voted with Democrats, and the measure squeaked through 50-48. Trump showed up to the lunch wanting to know why.

He asked, out loud, why anyone would vote for it. Cassidy stood up and shot back, "Is that a rhetorical question, or would you like to really know?" Trump said he wanted to know. So Cassidy told him: "You have not told the American people what's going on. It was supposed to last four weeks. It's lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what's going on."

That set Trump off. He raised his voice. Cassidy raised his right back. "I lost my temper, that's not appropriate, it's the Irish in me," Cassidy admitted later. "I matched his tone and his volume and it went back and forth."

Trump Told Him to Sit Down

As the volume climbed, Trump reportedly ordered Cassidy to sit down. Cassidy didn't. At one point Trump called him a "lunatic," according to multiple people in the room. Cassidy didn't deny it when reporters asked him about it afterward.

Then came the strangest moment of the whole thing. Cassidy at some point called Trump his "brother." Trump snapped back that Cassidy was not his brother. Trump also dug into Cassidy's recent primary loss, which Cassidy said was just "whatever comes to mind as to demean another person."

It finally ended when the senator sitting next to Cassidy reached over and pulled him back down into his seat to calm things. A White House official trashed Cassidy afterward, saying he "totally embarrassed himself" and calling him "unhinged." Cassidy saw it differently: "I'm not going to be bullied when I'm trying to get answers for the American people."

Why Cassidy Stopped Playing Nice

Here's the part that explains why Cassidy was willing to go toe-to-toe when most Republicans stay quiet: he's already out the door. Last month Cassidy became the first incumbent senator in 14 years to lose a primary, and he lost it to a challenger Trump backed.

That defeat traces straight back to Cassidy's vote to convict Trump in the impeachment trial over the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Republican voters in Louisiana never forgot it. Before the primary, Cassidy spent a lot of energy making nice, backing most of Trump's policies and nominees to avoid the fight.

Now there's nothing left to lose. He doesn't have to face those voters again, so he's free to say what's on his mind. "I make no apologies for standing up to the president," he told CBS. "I am sticking up for the American people, even if I'm speaking to the president." That kind of talk from a Republican is rare in Trump's second term.

He Wasn't the Only Target

Cassidy got the loudest treatment, but he had company. Trump also went after the three other Republicans who voted for the resolution: Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Murkowski wasn't backing down either. She told Trump flatly, "If you don't have the votes, sir, you don't have the votes."

Two more senators caught jabs for skipping the vote entirely: Mitch McConnell and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania. The McCormick one is almost funny. He missed the vote because he was out campaigning with Trump himself. The reason only Cassidy really pushed back, according to frustrated senators, was that Trump dominated the podium and barely left time for anyone else to get a word in.

Mad as a Murder Hornet

The senators who walked out had some colorful ways of describing what they'd just sat through. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said Trump was "mad as a murder hornet" about the Iran vote. Senator Roger Marshall compared the scene to "a hospital board meeting, when a bunch of doctors are yelling at each other."

Senator Ted Cruz reached for the polite words politicians use when they don't want to say what really happened, calling the exchange "spirited," "frank," and "candid." Senator Tommy Tuberville offered the blunt version: "The President got a lot of things off his chest."

Senator Kevin Cramer summed up how much got accomplished, which was nothing. He said everyone walked out "with the very same opinion they had before Trump came in." Majority Leader John Thune, who said nothing during the worst of it, only offered that he and Trump "at times have differences of opinion."

The Housing Bill Caught in the Middle

Iran ate up most of the room, but Trump came in with a wish list too. He wanted senators to pass the SAVE America Act, a voter ID bill, and he pushed again to kill the filibuster. Both are things he's demanded plenty of times before, with little to show for it.

He also used a housing bill as leverage. Trump said he won't sign the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act unless the Senate passes the SAVE Act first. That housing bill aims to make buying a home more affordable by stopping big institutional investors from snapping up single-family homes to rent out. Trump had a signing ceremony planned for Wednesday and canceled it at the last minute. There was no real talk about what comes next for either bill.

By Midnight, Cassidy Had Folded

For all the yelling, the story had a quiet ending. Late Wednesday night, the Senate took up a similar war powers measure, and this time it failed. Cassidy switched his vote and voted against advancing it. Rand Paul voted present. Just like that, the Republican rebuke from Tuesday was walked back.

What changed his mind? Cassidy said he finally got the "thorough briefing" he'd been demanding, this time from Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff. He thanked both men and said he appreciated "the quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns."

Trump celebrated the reversal on Truth Social, writing, "This vote puts Iran on notice!" Earlier he'd told reporters the lunch was "really great," then added the line everyone in the room understood: "I don't like a few people, but that's okay. I think you know who they are." After a 70-minute screaming match, nobody had to guess.