After Senate Loss, Cornyn Predicts 'Miserable' Final Two Years for Trump

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/us/john-cornyn-interview-trump.html

After Senate Loss, Cornyn Predicts ‘Miserable’ Final Two Years for Trump
In his first extensive interview since his defeat by a Trump-backed challenger, the Texas Republican said the Senate was in for a “bumpy ride” as he and others flex new political freedom.
By Carl Hulse
June 11, 2026, 12:47 p.m. ET

Senator John Cornyn was not consoled when President Trump professed on social media that the senior Republican from Texas would “remain my friend for a long time to come” after the president had enthusiastically endorsed the man who defeated Mr. Cornyn, ending his Senate career.

“If that’s the way friends treat you, you wonder about his enemies,” Mr. Cornyn said this week in his first extensive interview since his loss two weeks ago to Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas, an opponent Mr. Cornyn labeled corrupt and unfit for the Senate.

Mr. Cornyn said he had come to terms with his defeat, a stinging loss he attributed in part to public disillusionment with extreme partisan politics that led to low voter turnout. Now the Trump administration might find itself having to come to terms with Mr. Cornyn as he flexes new political freedom, joining a handful of other Senate Republicans not seeking re-election or defeated in primaries at Mr. Trump’s behest who now have added room to maneuver.

“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” Mr. Cornyn said during a wide-ranging conversation in his Capitol office as he reflected on the tumultuous Texas election and his nearly quarter-century in Washington.

“It does give some of us a little more freedom, and certainly leverage,” he said, before invoking Mr. Trump’s notoriously heated Oval Office meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine last year. “As the president told President Zelensky when he was in his office a year or so ago — he said, ‘You don’t have any cards.’ Well, we’ve got some cards to play.”

...

[chowder66]

1. No need to wonder about his enemies, it's in the news every day.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

2. Miserable final 2 years for planet earth

[Raven123]

3. Oooh, those grapes are sour! Tell it John.

If he didn’t know Trump was a psychopathic narcissist or narcissistic psychopath (I’m still I decided), it was willful ignorance. No sympathy, but I will get my popcorn out to watch the revenge of the MAGA discards.

[Lovie777]

4. Mentally and physically.....

nope, but the nightmares continue under Vance.

[Skittles]

5. fuck Cornyn

FAFO, asshole

[Marie Marie]

6. You have always had the cards John. Where have you been you coward? FFS, you control the co-equal branch of Government,

designed to keep the President in check. Why does anyone have to point this out to you? You could have all stood firm against his obvious insanity but you were too afraid of being primaried. Well, I am willing to bet that you will still, when it matters most, obey your leader while he burns it all down. And yet the GOP declares themselves the true Patriots. What a joke.

[mr715]

7. Hey, I bet he does nothing.

I bet he does nothing.

He'll vote every way Trump wants until he packs his boxes.

[canetoad]

8. This makes me laugh

This

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. MaddowBlog-After Trump became a problem for Cornyn, Cornyn may soon become a problem for Trump

“There’s never going to be good enough for him, other than 100%, you know, slavish adherence to whatever he wants,” the Texan said about Trump.

After Trump became a problem for Cornyn, Cornyn may soon become a problem for Trump - MS NOW apple.news/A_WYakqEzRT2...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-06-13T03:40:49.001Z

An obvious question soon followed: After Trump became a problem for Cornyn, would Cornyn become a problem for Trump? An answer is starting to come into focus. The New York Times reported:

Now the Trump administration might find itself having to come to terms with Mr. Cornyn as he flexes new political freedom, joining a handful of other Senate Republicans not seeking re-election or defeated in primaries at Mr. Trump’s behest who now have added room to maneuver.

“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” Mr. Cornyn said during a wide-ranging conversation in his Capitol office as he reflected on the tumultuous Texas election and his nearly quarter-century in Washington.

....But the Times’ report highlighted an issue of even greater significance.

After Trump withdrew his outlandish $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS last month, he received two scandalous rewards from his own administration. The first was the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund, while the other was an IRS audit shield, unveiled by his Justice Department, granting Trump, his family and his controversial businesses immunity from all existing IRS tax audits.

Of the two rewards, the former appears to have been discarded in the face of overwhelming bipartisan opposition, while the latter remains intact.

Cornyn, however, is opposed to both.

“I think that’s a terrible mistake,” Cornyn told the Times, referring to the audit shield. “The president needs to be treated like everybody else.”

Putting aside the question of why it took a full decade for Cornyn to recognize this problem, he has a unique opportunity to partner with the so-called YOLO caucus with six months remaining before his involuntary exit from Capitol Hill. Watch this space