Trump poses dilemma for Senate GOP leaders after years of battling with McConnell

Watch CNN’s coverage of Senate GOP leadership and Donald Trump on ‘Inside Politics Sunday with Manu Raju’ at 11 a.m. ET.

Speaker Mike Johnson speaks regularly with former President Donald Trump. One member of his leadership team stumped for Trump in New Hampshire. And all the top House leaders have made crystal clear: They are on Team Trump.

The same can’t be said of Republican leaders across the Capitol.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t spoken to Trump in more than three years and tries to avoid uttering his name in public. His chief deputy and potential successor, John Thune of South Dakota, still hasn’t endorsed Trump and said this month he’s “always been worried” about the down-ticket impact if the former president is nominee. Texas Sen. John Cornyn – another possible future leader who tends to stay out of contested primaries – just backed Trump after his New Hampshire victory, even as he’s raised concerns about his electability in a general election.

And a third potential McConnell successor – Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming – has taken a different approach, speaking with Trump before he endorsed him days before the Iowa caucuses – as well as planning a fundraiser for Trump-backed Senate candidate Kari Lake in Arizona and fundraising last week for another, Bernie Moreno, in Ohio, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

As Trump steamrolls to the nomination, there are ample questions in GOP circles about how – and whether – Trump can rebuild Senate alliances that were critical in his first term but are nonexistent now. The lack of relationship has become abundantly clear in recent days as Trump has publicly and privately lobbied rank-and-file senators and House GOP leaders to kill a major immigration and Ukraine deal that McConnell has worked for months to secure in the Senate.

And if Trump wins in November,…