2026-03-11T21:04:50.128Z / CNN
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[Alayna Treene]
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发布于 2026年3月11日，美国东部时间下午5:04
唐纳德·特朗普 国会新闻 参议院领导层
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2026年3月11日，俄亥俄州雷丁市，唐纳德·特朗普总统参观赛默飞世尔科技公司设施。
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知情人士向CNN透露，总统唐纳德·特朗普上周曾倾向于支持德克萨斯州共和党参议员约翰·科宁。但在他的意向被泄露给媒体后，他和一些高级顾问感到沮丧，计划陷入停滞。
随后，科宁的对手、德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿上周五宣布，如果参议院通过总统的投票限制法案——特朗普近几周对此法案尤为关注——他将[考虑退出决选]。帕克斯顿明确表示，共和党应取消阻挠议事规则（filibuster）才能实现这一点，而这一想法遭到许多共和党参议员的反对。
正如一位特朗普官员描述的那样，白宫官员将这一策略视为“天才之举”，它至少暂时让帕克斯顿继续留在竞选中。现在，特朗普已将支持其高优先级“拯救美国法案”（SAVE America Act）的通过与自己的背书联系起来——该法案除其他内容外，还将实施新的选民ID要求。
这对参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩来说是个不小的麻烦，他认为科宁在初选中获胜是保持共和党参议院多数地位的重要支柱；对共和党整体而言，这场备受争议的12周决选尚未开始，就已有约1亿美元投入到这场激烈的初选活动中。
尽管特朗普在社交媒体上暗示他将“很快”支持决选中的候选人，并希望在自己表态后其他候选人退选，但白宫官员表示总统并不急于做出决定。尽管科宁和帕克斯顿阵营以及参议院共和党领袖都施加了巨大压力，特朗普还是在整个初选期间推迟了背书。
[科宁在上周的初选中险胜帕克斯顿]，但两人均未获得足够的50%选票以避免决选。退出两人角逐的截止日期是3月18日下午5点（中部时间）。
2026年3月3日，德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿（左）和参议员约翰·科宁在各自的初选夜观察活动中。
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如今，在帕克斯顿最后通牒的推动下，特朗普发现，将潜在的科宁背书与推动参议院共和党人消除60票门槛（以通过立法）挂钩，对其而言是一个有效的激励手段。由于民主党不会支持该法案，它要想在参议院通过，唯一途径是共和党改变阻挠议事规则。该法案已在众议院通过。
数月来，图恩和其他人一直推动特朗普支持科宁，希望避免一场艰难的德克萨斯州大选耗尽他们本应用于其他关键参议院席位的资源。帕克斯顿有诸多负面记录，包括已和解的证券欺诈调查、州众议院的弹劾案以及不忠指控。
白宫和图恩的办公室拒绝置评。Politico首先报道称[特朗普希望利用他的背书]向参议员施压以推动投票法案。
科宁至少似乎愿意让步。在周三的《纽约邮报》专栏中，他表示，尽管过去曾反对改变阻挠议事规则，但他的同事们应“采纳任何必要的修改”以通过特朗普的投票限制法案。
“求生本能是强大的，”一位支持科宁的共和党消息人士告诉CNN，指的是这篇专栏文章。
科宁周三坚称，他的想法因“民主党前所未有的阻挠”而改变，而非为了获得特朗普的背书。
“我不知道总统是否有任何意图或是否会做出任何背书。我显然会欢迎它。但时间表，无论何时发生，完全由他决定，”科宁说。
据知情人士透露，科宁的专栏文章尚未打动特朗普，他仍坚决要确保“拯救美国法案”通过。与此同时，消息人士称，总统对图恩越来越不满，图恩公开抵制特朗普要求参议院共和党人“废除”阻挠议事规则的呼吁。
2026年3月11日，参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩在美国国会大厦与记者交谈。
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这种紧张局势使特朗普与图恩产生分歧，尽管两人在总统第二任期内关系密切，每周会交谈数次，但在特朗普认为对共和党中期选举胜利至关重要的问题上，两人意见不合。除了新的选民ID要求外，特朗普还希望该法案包括对邮寄投票的限制以及对未成年人变性身份手术的禁令。
“总统决心通过‘拯救美国法案’，”一位白宫高级官员告诉CNN，“他期望国会的盟友们完成这项任务。”
一些特朗普顾问认为，图恩最近的言论——他反复坚称废除阻挠议事规则是不可能完成的任务，尽管他计划下周就特朗普的投票法案进行投票——给其党内许多成员提供了“无所作为”的借口，一位知情人士在谈到相关讨论时表示。
“科宁参议员是53名共和党参议员之一，而反对废除阻挠议事规则的呼声在我们党内根深蒂固，正如你所知，”图恩周三上午告诉记者。
其他人也很快为图恩辩护，称他的立场代表了[参议院共和党人中广泛存在的观点]。
“在60票门槛下没有成功的路径。废除阻挠议事规则也没有路径。那么我们为什么不把时间花在更有成效的事情上呢？”北卡罗来纳州共和党参议员汤姆·蒂利斯表示。
周三，特朗普在回应图恩对废除阻挠议事规则的犹豫时告诉记者，这位南达科他州参议员“必须成为一名领导者。他是一名领导者，必须推动大家（废除阻挠议事规则）。”
CNN的达娜·巴什和阿莱特·塞恩兹对此报道有贡献。
唐纳德·特朗普 国会新闻 参议院领导层
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Trump leaned toward endorsing Cornyn. Then the leaks started — and Paxton made a ‘genius move’
2026-03-11T21:04:50.128Z / CNN
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[Alayna Treene]
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[Lauren Fox]
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PUBLISHED Mar 11, 2026, 5:04 PM ET
Donald Trump Congressional news Senate leadership
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President Donald Trump attends a tour of a Thermo Fisher Scientific facility in Reading, Ohio, on March 11, 2026.
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President Donald Trump was gravitating toward endorsing Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn last week. But he and some top advisers grew frustrated after his intentions leaked to the press, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, and the plan stalled.
Then Cornyn’s opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, announced on Friday that if the Senate passed the president’s voting restrictions bill — something Trump has grown particularly fixated on in recent weeks — he would [consider dropping out of the runoff race]. Paxton specified the GOP should lift the filibuster to do so, an idea many Republican senators oppose.
White House officials viewed the ploy as a “genius move,” as one Trump official described it, and it kept Paxton in the mix, at least temporarily. Now, Trump has latched onto the idea of tying his endorsement to the passage of his high-priority “SAVE America Act” — which, among other things, would impose new voter ID requirements.
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That’s a significant headache for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who sees a Cornyn primary win as an important pillar of keeping the GOP’s Senate majority, and for the larger party, which has already seen around $100 million sunk into a bruising primary campaign before the contentious, 12-week runoff has even started.
And while Trump has teased on social media that he’s endorsing in the runoff “soon,” and that he wants the other candidate to drop out once he does so, White House officials maintain that the president is not in a rush. Trump held out on an endorsement for the entire primary campaign, despite intense pressure campaigns from the Cornyn and Paxton camps as well as Senate GOP leaders.
[Cornyn narrowly edged out Paxton in the primary race] last week, but neither got the requisite 50% of votes to avoid a runoff. The deadline to withdraw from the two-man race is March 18 at 5 p.m. CT.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, left, and Sen. John Cornyn at their respective primary election night watch events on March 3, 2026.
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Now, egged on by Paxton’s ultimatum, Trump has found dangling a potential Cornyn endorsement to be a useful motivator for Senate GOP leaders, who have been unwilling so far to eliminate the required 60-vote threshold to advance the legislation. Since Democrats won’t back the bill, the only way it would clear the Senate is if Republicans change filibuster rules. The legislation has already passed the House.
For months, Thune and others have pushed Trump to endorse Cornyn, hoping to prevent a difficult Texas general election from siphoning away resources they want to use for other crucial Senate races. Paxton has a lot of baggage, including a since-settled securities fraud investigation, an impeachment by the state House and allegations of infidelity.
The White House and Thune’s office declined to comment. Politico first reported that [Trump wanted to use his endorsement] to pressure senators on the voting bill.
Cornyn seems willing to capitulate, at least. In an [op-ed in the New York Post] Wednesday, he said his colleagues should adopt “whatever changes … may prove necessary” to pass Trump’s voting restrictions bill — despite past comments opposing a change to filibuster rules.
“The survival instinct is a powerful one,” a GOP source who supports Cornyn told CNN, referring to the op-ed.
The Texas senator insisted Wednesday that his thinking had changed due to “the unprecedented obstruction by Democrats,” not to get Trump’s endorsement.
“I don’t know whether the president has any intention or not of making any endorsement. I would obviously welcome it. But the timeline, if or when it happens, is entirely up to him,” Cornyn said.
There’s no sign yet that Cornyn’s op-ed has moved Trump, according to the sources familiar with the matter, who is still dead set on seeing the “SAVE America Act” pass. Meanwhile, the president has grown particularly frustrated with Thune, the sources said, who has been publicly resisting Trump’s calls for Senate Republicans to nuke the filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune talks with reporters at the US Capitol on March 11, 2026.
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The dynamic has put Trump and Thune, who have grown close throughout the president’s second term in office and speak several times a week, at odds on an issue Trump views as crucial to a GOP win in the midterm elections. In addition to new voter ID requirements, Trump also wants the bill to include restrictions on mail-in voting and a ban on transgender identity surgeries for minors.
“The president is hellbent on passing the ‘SAVE America Act,’” one senior White House official told CNN. “He expects his allies in Congress to get the job done.”
Some Trump advisers view Thune’s recent comments — he has repeatedly insisted that getting rid of the filibuster is an impossible task, though he plans to put Trump’s voting bill up for a vote next week — as giving many members of his conference an out to do nothing, one source familiar with the talks said.
“Sen. Cornyn is one of 53 Republican senators and the opposition to nuking the filibuster runs very, very deep in our conference, as you know,” Thune told reporters Wednesday morning.
Others are also quick to defend Thune, arguing his position represents a [widely shared view among the Senate GOP].
“There is no path to success with a 60-vote threshold. There is no path to nuking the filibuster. So why don’t we spend our time more productively on things we can get done?” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said.
Trump, addressing Thune’s reticence to gutting the filibuster on Wednesday, told reporters the South Dakota senator has “got to be a leader. He’s a leader, he’s got to get them.”
CNN’s Dana Bash and Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.
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