GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy says he lost his temper at Trump in closed-door meeting

WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump made the rare trek to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to attend a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans, he did most of the talking.

Few lawmakers asked him questions. There wasn't much of an opportunity, they acknowledged afterward. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the president himself "spoke for an hour and 15 minutes."

One Republican, however, was a notable exception.

A particularly heated exchange involved Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana lawmaker who fell out of favor with Trump years ago after his vote to convict him of impeachment over the Jan. 6 insurrection. Since Cassidy lost his GOP primary reelection earlier this year, he's dug in against the administration on various political fronts, namely over the Iran war.

Cassidy, whose support for ending the war has been critical to several successful Senate measures, told reporters after the meeting that he made his frustrations known.

"Our original objectives have not been achieved," Cassidy said he told Trump, who "did not particularly care for my comments" and then "raised his voice."

Following weeks of intraparty feuding, the interaction stood out as one of few moments of overt defiance when Republican senators came face-to-face with Trump.

Just two hours before the tête-à-tête, Trump again threw a wrench in Congress' schedule by abruptly refusing to attend a signing ceremony for a landmark housing bill that passed both chambers this week. He said he won't sign the bipartisan legislation, an election-year victory for both parties, until Republicans pass the SAVE America Act, a major voting restrictions bill that key senators have said doesn't have enough support in Congress to realistically become law.

During Wednesday's meeting, it wasn't clear that Republicans reached a solution about how to resolve that impasse, which is just the latest issue driving a wedge between GOP lawmakers and the president.

But "voices were raised," said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas.

It was "very much like a hospital board meeting when a bunch of doctors are yelling at each other," said Marshall, who, like Cassidy, is a physician.

At one point, Cassidy referred to Trump as "brother" instead of "Mr. President," according to Sen. Jim Justice, R-West Virginia.

"Naturally, there was a little exchange between Bill Cassidy and the president," he said. "They harbor bad feelings. Maybe that’s fair. Maybe not."

Cassidy acknowledged that while he could have been calmer, he was matching Trump's tone and volume.

"I lost my temper. That's not appropriate," he said. "It's the Irish in me."

Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.