Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
- Elon Musk and other MAGA figures are onto a new fight: Who will be the next Senate Majority Leader.
- They're backing Sen. Rick Scott over Sens. John Thune and John Cornyn.
- It's all about Scott's loyalty to Trump. But it's unclear if it will be successful.
With President-elect Donald Trump now on his way to the White House, his allies are settling on a new target: Getting a loyalist installed as Senate Majority Leader.
Ahead of Mitch McConnell's long-awaited retirement from leadership, Republicans are set to choose a new leader on Wednesday of this week. They will decide between Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas, and Rick Scott of Florida.
Many of Trump's loudest allies online have settled on their choice. They want Scott, and over the weekend, right-wing media figures began pushing hard for him.
Tucker Carlson wrote on X that Scott is the "only candidate who agrees with Donald Trump." Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said that the "entire Trump reform agenda" would be "wobbly" if Scott isn't elected. That's on top of a cadre of hardline conservative senators and MAGA-aligned outside organizations who are loudly declaring their support for the Florida senator.
Then there's Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman who spent over $119 million to get Trump elected and has been at his side in recent days. After running a poll that Scott easily won, Musk endorsed him, arguing that the next majority leader "must respond to the will of the people."
"With Elon Musk's endorsement, we are hoping that President Trump will come out strongly in favor of Rick Scott since he is the only choice who has been consistently loyal to the MAGA agenda," one Senate GOP aide told Business Insider.
This will show how much sway Trump has in the Senate
Trump has yet to back any candidate, and a spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry as to whether he will. To do so would be a risky proposition: Thune and Cornyn, both of whom have served before as McConnell's lieutenant, have long been seen as the frontrunners for the job.
If Trump were to loudly back a candidate, only for that candidate to lose, it would be an embarrassing note to begin his second term on. So for now, Trump's playing a different game, leveraging his influence so far to force each of the three contenders to bend to his demands.
On Sunday, Trump declared that all of the candidates must agree to allow "recess appointments," which would allow him to legally appoint people to positions without the need for immediate Senate confirmation. Within hours, all three candidates responded, pledging in various ways to satisfy that demand.
"Without recess appointments, it will take two years or more to confirm the new administration!" Musk chimed in.
All of a sudden, a relatively sleepy race that had been built on quiet relationship-building and promises of modest institutional changes is about loyalty to Trump, at least in public.
Thune and Cornyn have done things in the past that Scott's allies are now capitalizing upon to paint them as disloyal to MAGA. Both men publicly express their desire for a candidate other than Trump during the 2024 GOP presidential primaries. Thune even called on Trump to withdraw from the race in 2016. Cornyn helped shepherd through a major gun control bill in 2022 in the wake of the Uvalde shooting in his home state of Texas. And both have supported Ukraine aid, in contrast to Scott.
Spokespeople for Thune and Cornyn did not provide comment for this story.
But the race won't be decided by GOP base voters. It will be decided by the 53 GOP senators and senators-elect who will make up the party's majority in 2025. The vast majority of them have not publicly declared who they'll vote for, and they'll never have to — the vote is conducted via a secret ballot. Historically, Trump's influence is less pronounced when it comes to leadership elections on Capitol Hill.
Scott could also have some trouble winning over his colleagues. He was the chairman of Senate Republicans' campaign arm in 2022, when the party had a bad cycle, and he only won 10 votes when he challenged McConnell that year. Some senators may also respond poorly to the online pressure campaign that's begun brewing.
"They're trying to bully us. That's not how these elections work," a Republican senator anonymously told Punchbowl News.