Lame-Duck Cassidy Breaks Script on Trump, Signaling Structural Shift in Senate Discipline

Senator Bill Cassidy backed a War Powers Resolution against Trump's Iran operations and publicly described the president as "berating" senators in a private White House meeting. Cassidy lost his Louisiana primary in May, severing his electoral tether to Trump's base. With no further campaign to defend, he accepted the political cost of dissent—a calculus that signals how senators freed from reelection pressure may reshape Republican leverage on contested legislation ahead.