Holding The Line: John Thune On The Shutdown, Trump, & 2026

What this episode is about

Senate Majority Leader John Thune discusses the challenges and achievements of the past year, including navigating a significant government shutdown and advancing legislation and President Trump's nominations. He also reflects on the Republican Party's strategy moving into the 2026 election cycle.

Key takeaways

• Senate voted more in 2025 than any year since '76, proving that democracy really is a contact sport.
• Bundling achievements into one 'big beautiful bill' might mute individual wins but maximizes legislative muscle flexing.
• Despite the chaos, Thun asserts a productive Senate—more votes don’t equal progress, but they help show it off.
• Bipartisanship was the silent hero this year, echoing across a landscape often characterized by partisan battles.
• Underneath government shutdown theatrics, a historic push for military funding and border security quietly reshaped national priorities.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Tim Rice (Guest) · 6 min speaking
• John Thune (Guest) · 8 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Daily Wire (company), John Thun, Tim Rice, 2025
2. 3:00 – 6:00: tax policy, national security, Congressional Review Act, school choice
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Medicaid, school choice, rural hospital transformation fund
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Donald Trump, political violence, radical Islamic terrorism
5. 12:00 – 13:47: national security, John Thun, Tim Rice, Daily Wire (company)

Notable quotes from "Holding The Line: John Thune On The Shutdown, Trump, & 2026"

• At the forefront of those efforts is Senate Majority Leader John Thun. In this episode, Daily Wire DC Bureau Chief Tim Rice sits down with Thoon to discuss the struggles and…

  about Daily Wire (company) · at 0:14

• Senator Thun, thank you so much for sitting down with us today. I know it's a busy time. We've got a lot going on.

  about Tim Rice · at 1:27

• Yeah, I it does in some ways because we loaded that thing up with so much of our agenda. In fact, the president's agenda for the most part was all accomplished in that one big beautiful bill, whether it's national.

  about John Thun · at 2:49

• Noms and we've done 24 now what we call continuing resol I should say congressional review act resolutions of disapproval, which undoes a lot of the Biden damage by repealing a…

  about Congressional Review Act · at 3:44

• Well, I think first off and I would say because I think the first job we have and I always tell people if you don't get national security right the rest is conversation. So we…

  about national security · at 4:41

• Did do some of this in the one big beautiful bill but rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. We did that in the Medicaid program. We put work requirements in something, and then…

  about Medicaid · at 7:13

• Took unprecedented steps to basically blow up the nominations process. President Trump is the first president in history who didn't have one of his nominees to a position in his administration confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous.

  about Donald Trump · at 9:40

• Needs that our military needs to deter bad behavior and then of course obviously when it happens make sure that people are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And I think…

  about political violence · at 12:36

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• John Thun — Person · Main guest · 3 mentions · first at 0:15
  As Senate Majority Leader, he explains the GOP Senate's 2025 legislative strategy, nominations push, and priorities for 2026, including national security, border funding, and tax policy.
• Tim Rice — Person · Interviewer · 3 mentions · first at 0:19
  He conducts the interview, prompting Thun to detail the 'one big beautiful bill,' healthcare disputes, confirmations, and political violence concerns.
• Donald Trump — Person · Referenced political leader · 2 mentions · first at 0:10
  Presented as the president whose agenda is advanced through the 'one big beautiful bill' and whose nominees Senate Republicans prioritize confirming.
• John Mickley — Person · Host / introducer · 1 mention · first at 0:29
  He introduces the special edition and identifies himself as Daily Wire executive editor, framing the interview segment.
  With Thoon to discuss the struggles and wins of 2025 and to look ahead to 2026. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Mickley with Georgia How. This is a special edition of Morning Wire.

Companies & orgs

• Daily Wire (company) — Company · Publisher / platform · 4 mentions · first at 0:17
  The episode is produced under Daily Wire branding; Daily Wire staff host and conduct the interview, and a Daily Wire product ad is included.

Products & tech

• Jeremy's razors — Product · Advertised product · 2 mentions · first at 0:41
  Promoted in an ad read as a Daily Wire brand product positioned against 'progressive activism' in competing razor companies.
  About toxic masculinity than actually making blades that don't suck. Sound like you? Then it's time to switch over to Jeremy's razors, a Daily Wire brand.

Concepts & topics

• national security — Concept · Core topic · 4 mentions · first at 2:56
  Thun frames national security as the government's first priority and a major component of the large legislative package, including military funding and 'peace through strength.'
• tax policy — Concept · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at 2:58
  Highlighted as a key prosperity lever in the bill, including extensions of 2017 policies and new provisions like no tax on tips/overtime.
  Was the first and foremost thing. And then it's about making the country more prosperous. And I think the tax policy will be really key to that. I would argue that not only…
• Medicaid — Concept · Healthcare policy focus · 1 mention · first at 7:16
  Thun cites Medicaid reforms in the bill—work requirements and anti-gaming measures—as examples of reducing waste and generating savings.
• political violence — Concept · Core topic (somber segment) · 1 mention · first at 10:59
  Raised as a growing concern; Thun discusses safety, deterrence, law enforcement resources, and prosecution.
• school choice — Concept · Policy item in bill · 2 mentions · first at 3:02
  Cited as a long-standing conservative priority included within the large legislative package.
  Beautiful bill, whether it's national security or the border, energy, tax policy, school choice has been a priority for the movement for a long time. newborn accounts, child care, the farm bill. we basically wrote the farm bill in the.
• Congressional Review Act — Concept · Regulatory rollback mechanism · 1 mention · first at 3:49
  Cited as the tool used for 'resolutions of disapproval' to repeal Biden-era regulations and increase energy production.
• farm bill — Concept · Legislative component · 1 mention · first at 3:09
  Thun claims major farm bill content was effectively written into the 'one big beautiful bill,' illustrating how broad the package was.
  A long time. newborn accounts, child care, the farm bill. we basically wrote the farm bill in the one big beautiful bill, too. So, and then it actually included the biggest spending reduction literally in history. And something that if.
• rural hospital transformation fund — Concept · Policy provision · 1 mention · first at 7:28
  Described as a mechanism to support rural healthcare access, especially for states with rural hospitals.
  Clamped down on some of that and we achieved a significant amount of savings there. And then we put in this rural hospital transformation fund which for if you've got represent…
• radical Islamic terrorism — Concept · Threat reference · 1 mention · first at 11:09
  Mentioned as a resurgent threat category alongside political and anti-semitic violence, motivating discussion of security posture.
  We can safely add it back into the mix now, the continuing and perhaps resurgent threat of radical Islamic terrorism. obviously this is a big issue. This is an issue that the president is very much concerned about.

Places & events

• 2025 — Event · Primary timeframe · 2 mentions · first at 0:21
  The interview is framed as a review of 2025 legislative activity (votes, bill passage, nominations, CRA actions) and its outcomes.
  Thun. In this episode, Daily Wire DC Bureau Chief Tim Rice sits down with Thoon to discuss the struggles and wins of 2025 and to look ahead to 2026. I'm Daily Wire executive…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:03 The government shutdown may have been the biggest story to come out of Capitol Hill this year, but behind the scenes, Republican lawmakers were working to pass legislation and confirm President Trump's nominees.

0:14 At the forefront of those efforts is Senate Majority Leader John Thun. In this episode, Daily Wire DC Bureau Chief Tim Rice sits down with Thoon to discuss the struggles and wins of 2025 and to look ahead to 2026. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Mickley with Georgia How. This is a special edition of Morning Wire. You know what I'm sick of? Razor companies that spend more time preaching about toxic masculinity than actually making blades that don't suck. Sound like you? Then it's time to switch over to Jeremy's razors, a Daily Wire brand.

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1:16 That's jeremyrazers.com. The following is an interview between Daily Wire DC bureau chief Tim Rice and Senate Majority Leader John Thun.

1:27 Senator Thun, thank you so much for uh sitting down with us today. I know it's a busy time. We've got a lot going on. Um and it's been a busy year.

1:34 So, let's start by talking about that. How would you uh I believe the Senate was in session 44 out of 52 weeks this year. Is that correct?

1:42 That's close. I I think to my colleagues in the Senate feels like 52 out of 52, but but is it's it was a historic number of weeks in session, days in session, hours in session, and record number of votes cast. In fact, we went back eight decades back to the 1940s, and there's only been one other time in 1976 where a Senate cast more votes than we did this year. Um, so it's been yeah, it's been busy um in many ways sort of exhausting, I think, for a lot of folks, but uh I would also say productive. And you know, a lot of times I don't equate volume like number of votes with actually accomplishment or getting things done, but I think in this case um it's been a very productive um Senate too in terms of the things that we've accomplished.

2:22 Definitely. But despite that, it seems like, you know, the the the peanut gallery is still chirping. You know, Senate Rep Senate can't get anything done and Senate Republicans can't get anything done. Do you think that the success of the one big beautiful bill almost sort of hurt you from a PR perspective? Do you think that bundling so much stuff into one massive piece of legislation deprivives you of the opportunity to really drum home, hammer home the fact that we are accomplishing a lot?

2:49 Yeah, I it does in some ways because we we loaded that thing up with so much of our um our agenda. In fact, the president's agenda for the most part was all accomplished in that one big beautiful bill, whether it's national security or the border, uh energy, tax policy, um you know, uh school choice has been a priority for the movement for a long time. uh newborn accounts, uh uh child care, the the farm bill. I mean, we basically wrote the farm bill in the in the one big beautiful bill, too. So, and then it actually included the biggest uh spending reduction literally in history. And um something that if you're a fiscal conservative like I am, we're really proud to be able to point to, but it does it it packs so much into one big piece of legislation. And it was a you know, just getting that across the finish line was a herculean task. Um, and if you'd spread that out, you know, these things over a long period of time

3:37 like we would normally do, then it would look like a lot of stuff. But what other things we're getting done, too? I mean, we've we've processed the president's noms and we've done 24 now what we call continuing resol uh uh I should say congressional review act resolutions of disapproval, which undoes a lot of the Biden damage by uh repealing a lot of the burdensome Biden regulations and uh frees up energy production in this country and a whole range of other things. And we've had some bipartisan accomplishments, too. So, it's been busy. Um, you know, terms just just in terms of volume of votes and time and and then in session, all that too, but I think also I would argue very productive. Um, but doing it all in one big a lot of that one big package does uh yeah, then it gets the peanut gallery going like why aren't you guys doing anything this week, you know? So,

4:21 well, so let's let's let's unpack that. Let's let's let's you know, let's we can give you an opportunity to make up for the press conferences that you maybe didn't have. What would you say are I'm going to I'm going to try to limit you to three. What would you say are the three most important uh or maybe maybe uh important parts of the big beautiful bill that people don't know about? Uh feel free to answer however you want, but give you know give us a peek inside.

4:41 Well, I think first off and I would say because I think the first job we have and I always tell people if you don't get national security right the rest is conversation. So we really made up for the Biden years when they weren't funding the military. Um we we put money in there to to build the wall at the border and to and to close the border, which the president has effectively and successfully done. Um but you know, we needed to make sure that we had not only border wall money, but we had personnel for uh border patrol agents, uh detention facilities, um all the things that we needed to do that were backed up. And so when I I kind of put it in the category of making the country safer and more secure. And so I would say that was the first and foremost thing. And then it's about making the country more prosperous. And I think the tax policy will be really key to that. I would argue that um not only extending uh the

5:28 policies from 2017 which included lower rates for families and doubling of the child tax credit, near doubling of the standard deduction and there's a 199A deduction for small businesses in there. But um we also did no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, reduce taxes on, you know, for seniors on social security. So I think the tax policy in and of itself is going to be enormously stimulative of the economy. you look at um you know bonus depreciation, interest deductibility, um you know R&D expensing, those are all things that on the business side I I think it's going to lead to growth in the economy and better paying jobs. So I think that people are going to see a better future as a result of the economic pieces of it. And then there's a whole, you know, bunch of other things that I would kind of put in there together and I mentioned some of them uh having to do with just policies that uh we think are consistent with

6:16 conservative view how this country ought to be run. you know, I mean, given um, you know, the school choice policies have been something that's been a part of our agenda for a long time. Um, you look at these newborn accounts and what a difference that will make in the lives of families and young people who are being born today to be able to put money aside for for their futures. Um, those are all incentives in this bill that I think are just going to lead to a better quality of life for a lot of the American people.

6:39 Yeah. Now, of all those policies, I noticed that you didn't mention healthcare. And I know that there wasn't that much of a healthcare component in the big beautiful bill, but that is of course uh once again the the topic dour here on Capitol Hill. So, uh what's going on? What's what's your thinking on this and what's the what's the caucuses thinking on this? What are what are the next steps? I mean, the president's been very clear about what he wants to see. Uh the Democrats have been very clear uh to the point of shutting the government down about what they want to see. What do what do you hope uh the Congress with and the president can accomplish on the healthcare front?

7:12 I think first and foremost and and we did do some of this in the one big beautiful bill but rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. We did that in the Medicaid program. We put work requirements in something, you know, and then there were states were had figured out how to game the program and so we clamped down on some of that and we achieved a significant amount of savings there. And then we put in this uh rural hospital transformation fund which for if you've got represent rural hospitals like I do, I think uh the states are going to take full advantage of that and trying to ensure that we've got healthcare that's accessible to people all across the country including in rural areas. But I think to your point, the Democrats um view of this is to extend Obamacare uh and particularly pieces of Obamacare that are rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. And our approach on that has always been, you know, let's instead of

7:58 enriching the insurance companies and the way this thing is structured, particularly these enhanced Biden subsidies, uh, structured in a way that incentivizes insurance companies to autoenroll people. So, you got a lot of people out there who don't even know they're covered. Don't don't know they have insurance because they're not paying any. They got zero dollar premiums. Um, they're auto-enrolled by the insurance company, which is getting the payment directly from the government. There are no income caps. So now you got people making500 or $600,000 a year who are getting subsidies from the federal taxpayers on health insurance. So that model, that business model is not what we are for. Um what we do believe makes sense is a a a model that uh creates for you know uh expansion of health savings accounts um and putting the money back in the pockets of people in this country, incentivizing them to buy the insurance

8:47 that makes sense for them rather than buying the insurance the government tells them they have to buy. and uh so they get a better, you know, better rate, lower premium, and um and better access to coverage. And I think those those are things those are elements of healthc care policy that we think make sense and none of which were included in what the you know the Democrats uh voted on last week or you know what the um the Democrats in the House are trying to get done over there now.

9:10 Yeah. Now, we've covered legislation. That's obviously the main job of the Senate, but another big part is uh nominations, right? Confirming the president's nominees. This was the first year of a a presidential administration, a Republican presidential administration. It's almost hard to remember how many people have been confirmed and how many nominees went through. So, could you just kind of give us the the year in review, the the a look back at that? Well, I will tell you this, Tim. One of the reasons we cast so many votes this year, early on especially, is because the Democrats uh took unprecedented steps to basically blow up the nominations process. Uh, President Trump is the first president in history who didn't have one of his nominees to a position in his administration confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent in the Senate, which is a way of taking non-controversial nominees and

9:59 being able to move them and get them in their position. Uh, the Democrats were so dug in fighting President Trump that even the the most non-controversial positions in his administration, they forced us to do the long way. So, we spent the first six months doing it the long way. And it just got to the point where, you know, the president is sitting there. He's got all these vacant positions. He can't, you know, run the government because he doesn't have his people in place. And I think when the people vote for a president, that's what they're voting for. They want him to be able to to assemble his team and get them in place. So, we we made some tweaks, some changes in the rules that enables us to move them now in stacks.

10:33 That'll put us over 400 for the year, uh, which is well ahead not only of his first term in office, but uh, Biden as well. And, um, it just makes sense to me. It's about, you know, if you want your government to run and function effectively and efficiently, and I think most Americans do, they want to see a president get his team in place. So, we've um we've been we've been keeping our uh heads down and getting that done.

10:54 Great. Uh switching gears a little bit to a uh a more somber topic. I know you've been asked a lot about the rise of political violence, but it seems and and anti-semitic violence and I I think we can safely add it back into the mix now, you know, the the continuing and perhaps resurgent threat of radical Islamic terrorism. Um, obviously this is a big issue. This is an issue that the president is very much concerned about. Um, and it's something that, you know, the whole of government and the world is going to have to deal with. But for for your part as the Senate majority leader, as a senator, as an American, what do you what do you think should be done on this? What do you hope to accomplish?

11:28 anything you looking forward to the new year. Uh what sort of role do you want the Senate to play in in combating these threats?

11:34 Well, I think like most Americans, I I want, you know, I want people to be able to live. And I think the question, basic question most Americans ask is, is you know, am I safe? Is my family safe? Is my neighborhood safe? Is my community safe? My world safe? And um you know, these days uh there was so much, like you said, going on and these attacks that have been in the news lately. Um it it raises a lot of those questions for people in this country. I do think that the president's cleareyed focus on making our communities safer uh his investment in securing the border, uh working with us, his investment in America's national security and projecting a policy of peace through strength around the world are all things that contribute to uh keeping people in this country safe. But when you see things like what happened in Australia or even things that you know some of these horrible incidents here uh in the

12:21 United States, they're they're really tragic. And um you know there's a there's a lot going on out there right now. Um and I think that the best thing we can do is try uh to put in place the um the things that our law enforcement needs that our military needs to deter bad behavior and then of course obviously when it happens um make sure that uh people are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And I think the president's focus on law enforcement and on security uh is is very in in a clear-eyed way focused on that. But um I do think that we want to be good partners in that and contributing where we can. If that's a function of resources, if that's a function of uh ensuring that there are, you know, the right personnel, you got the teams in place in different uh areas of our government that can oversee and try and ensure that we have security and safety in this country. We're all in on that.

13:12 Um like I said, that's uh that's the most important in my view job of a of a government is to provide uh safety for uh the public, the people that you serve and represent.

13:21 Great. Well, Senator, thank you again for taking the time. Uh, it's been an incredible year and, uh, look looking forward to see what you guys uh, come up with in 2026.

13:29 Thanks, Tim. Merry Christmas to you and good. Absolutely. That was Daily Wire DC Bureau Chief Tim Rice speaking with Senate Majority Leader John Thun. And this has been a special edition of Morning Wire.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Holding The Line: John Thune On The Shutdown, Trump, & 2026"?

Tim Rice (Guest), John Thune (Guest).

What is "Holding The Line: John Thune On The Shutdown, Trump, & 2026" about?

Senate Majority Leader John Thune discusses the challenges and achievements of the past year, including navigating a significant government shutdown and advancing legislation and President Trump's nominations. He also reflects on the Republican Party's strategy moving into the 2026 election cycle.

What is mentioned in this Morning Wire episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including John Thun, national security, Tim Rice, tax policy, Donald Trump, Daily Wire (company). Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Holding The Line: John Thune On The Shutdown, Trump, & 2026"?

The episode runs 14 min; the transcript is about 3,003 words in 28 timestamped sections.

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