Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) recounted a heated, in-person confrontation with President Trump on June 24, 2026, that broke out during a closed-door Senate Republican lunch over Cassidy’s vote to limit Trump’s war powers in Iran. “He asked, why would anybody vote for the War Powers Act? As he continued, I said, ‘is that a rhetorical question, or would you like to really know?’ He said, ‘I’d like to know.’ I stood and said, ‘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,'” Cassidy told reporters after the meeting. “I’m voting for war powers until I get a briefing, at which point, as I recall, he did not particularly care for my comments, raised his voice, I lost my temper, that’s not appropriate. It’s the Irish in me, but I again matched his tone and his volume, and it went back and forth. But at some point, my guy said, ‘It’s alright, Bill sit down’ and so I sat down and tried to deescalate.”
What Set It Off
The confrontation began when Trump confronted Republican senators directly over the previous night’s Senate vote on a war powers resolution aimed at ending the conflict with Iran. Trump’s anger was directed broadly at the four Republicans, Cassidy along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who had joined nearly all Democrats in passing the measure 50-48 the night before. The lunch came one day after Trump had publicly criticized the four senators on Truth Social, calling them “Four Republican Losers” and describing the vote as “poorly timed and meaningless.”
How the Exchange Escalated
According to multiple sources in the room cited by CNN and ABC News, the back-and-forth grew increasingly heated once Cassidy stood to respond. At one point, Trump told Cassidy to sit down, but Cassidy refused and instead raised his voice further. Trump then called Cassidy a “lunatic,” which Cassidy did not dispute when later asked about it by ABC News. Two people in the room said Cassidy referred to Trump as “brother” during the shouting, prompting Trump to tell the senator he was not his brother. Senate Majority Leader John Thune attempted to intervene and de-escalate the situation, with other senators also stepping in to ease the tension before Cassidy eventually sat back down.
Other Senators’ Accounts
Lawmakers who witnessed the exchange offered their own characterizations of its intensity. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters afterward that “the president was and is mad as a murder hornet about the war powers vote yesterday,” adding, “And I don’t blame him. Put yourself in his shoes.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) described the lunch more diplomatically as “spirited,” while one source in the room described Cassidy’s anger level as “out of body.” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told Semafor, “It was not a good discussion. Sometimes two guys just have to get it off their chest.”
Trump Also Targeted McCormick
Trump’s frustration during the lunch was not limited to Cassidy. According to a source cited by MS NOW, Trump also went after Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) for missing the war powers vote. McCormick had been with Trump at a Pennsylvania rally at the time of the vote, and the resolution’s outcome would not have changed regardless of his presence, since the measure passed even with Sen. Mitch McConnell absent due to a recent hospitalization.
Cassidy’s Position and Political Context
Cassidy made clear after the meeting that he stood by both his vote and his conduct during the confrontation. “I make no apologies for standing up to the president, if you will, trying to demand that more information be shared with the Senate and more information be shared with the American people,” he told reporters, according to MS NOW. Cassidy emphasized that his concern was about transparency rather than opposition to Trump personally: “This is not about me, it’s not about the president, it’s about the American people knowing what’s going on, and right now it seems like we’re being told different things by different people.” The confrontation occurred roughly a month after Cassidy lost his Republican primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger, a defeat that has coincided with Cassidy becoming one of the president’s more outspoken critics within the party.
Asked whether he regretted how heated the meeting became, Cassidy told reporters, “No, I’m not going to be bullied when I’m trying to get answers for the American people.” He added, “He may be right. I just think there needs to be more kind of let’s be open about it, and I’m not going to be bullied into silence when I’m sticking up for the American people.”
Trump’s Public Response
Trump characterized the overall meeting differently when speaking to reporters afterward, describing it as “really great” without directly addressing the confrontation with Cassidy. “I think we had a really great meeting, and we’re very proud of the party. We like our leader, we like everybody really in the room,” Trump said. “I don’t like a few people, but that’s OK. I think you know who they are, but we — I’ll give you that information someday, but for the most part, we have a really well unified party, and I said it very strongly.” Later that day, Trump told Time in the Oval Office that he believed the Senate vote could complicate ongoing negotiations with Iran, saying, “We’re doing great in our negotiations with Iran.”
One source familiar with the conversation described the overall lunch to MS NOW as a “venting session” for Trump, characterizing the broader gathering as coming at a rocky moment in Trump’s relationship with Senate Republicans, who in recent weeks have shown greater willingness to challenge him publicly, whether over Iran, his demands on voting legislation, or his pick to serve as acting director of national intelligence.
Other Business at the Lunch
Beyond the Iran dispute, Trump used the roughly hourlong meeting to press senators on other priorities, including the SAVE America Act, a voting-related bill, and a renewed push to eliminate the Senate filibuster. According to Axios, there was little productive discussion on either front. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told reporters of the filibuster debate, “I think everybody walked out with the very same opinion they had before he came in, but, you know, we heard him out.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), another outgoing senator who lost his own primary to a Trump-backed challenger, remarked dryly on his way out that Trump had delivered “quite the unity message,” adding, “The president closed by preaching unity, but he spent the entire hour talking about things which were not exactly unified.”
The lunch also came the same day Trump abruptly canceled a planned signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing bill that Congress had already passed, telling reporters in the Oval Office, “I said I’m not signing the housing bill,” while declining to say whether he would formally veto it. Under standard rules, the bill is set to become law regardless after 10 days unless Trump issues a formal veto, which Congress could override with a two-thirds vote in both chambers.
The War Powers Resolution’s Limited Effect
Despite the intensity of the confrontation, the underlying resolution at the center of the dispute carries no binding legal force and cannot by itself compel Trump to withdraw forces from the region. Its passage nonetheless represented a significant bipartisan statement among lawmakers who believe Congress should play a larger role in decisions about an extended military conflict, and the Wednesday lunch made clear that the underlying dispute over transparency and the war’s objectives remains a live source of tension within the Republican Party heading into this fall’s midterm elections.