A Republican lawmaker reportedly shouted at President Donald Trump during a tense closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill.
The 80-year-old president met with Senate Republicans for lunch on Wednesday after abruptly canceling the signing ceremony for a bipartisan affordable housing bill. He said he was scrapping his plans in response to Congress’s refusal to pass the SAVE America Act, a Republican-backed measure that would require new voters to show proof of citizenship.
During the meeting, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy raised concerns to Trump over the Iran war, following the president’s signing of a memorandum of understanding earlier this month, according to MS NOW reporter Mychael Schnell.
One unnamed source told the outlet that the senator was “yelling” at the president.
According to CNN’s Manu Raju, Trump instructed Cassidy to sit down, but the lawmaker refused and raised his voice, referring to Trump as “brother.” Trump responded that he was not his brother and called him a “lunatic.” Cassidy eventually took his seat.
Cassidy, who lost his primary last month, later described the explosive GOP meeting to reporters.
Tensions flared when the president expressed frustration over the Senate’s approval of a war powers resolution directing him to withdraw U.S. forces engaged in hostilities against Iran. Lawmakers approved the resolution 50-48 on Tuesday, weeks after it had cleared the House, delivering a striking and rare bipartisan rebuke to the president.
Trump questioned why “anybody” would support the measure, Cassidy said, according to The Hill.
“I stood and said, ‘Is that a rhetorical question or would you like to really know?’” recalled the outgoing lawmaker, who was among a small group of Republicans to back the resolution.
“You have not told the American people what’s going on,” Cassidy told the president. “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, a physician who has served in the Senate since 2015, said Trump responded by shouting, setting off a heated exchange.
“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,” the senator said. “I matched his tone and his volume and it went back and forth.”
Trump also reportedly lambasted GOP Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul, all of whom voted for the resolution.
Speaking to Fox News after the meeting, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville said: “This was a great talk by President Trump. He did call some people out for voting against the War Powers Act yesterday, right in the middle of negotiations.”
Since losing his primary in May to a Trump-backed challenger, Cassidy has shown a greater willingness to openly criticize the president.
After Trump signed the June 17 memorandum of understanding with Iran, which pledged U.S. support for the country’s economic development, Cassidy wrote on X, “This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”
The war, launched by the U.S. and Israel in late February, remains deeply unpopular with Americans, according to multiple polls. In a recent Reuters survey, just 24 percent of respondents said the war was worth the cost.
A host of other issues have reportedly deepened tensions between some Republican senators and the president, including the White House ballroom and Trump’s singular focus on passing the SAVE America Act. Concerns have also been raised that the GOP could face a shellacking in the upcoming midterms.
“I think November is going to be a disaster,” Texas Senator John Cornyn, who recently lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger, said earlier this month.
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