Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) appears to still be upset over President Donald Trump’s decision to endorse his opponent in the recent primary election.
The lawmaker is threatening to tank two of the president’s nominees if he does not approve funding to address the AIDS epidemic in Africa, according to Politico.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is threatening to sink the ambassador nominations of two high-profile allies of President Donald Trump unless the White House commits to distributing AIDS funding in Africa.
A spokesperson for Cornyn, a member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told POLITICO on Tuesday that he wouldn’t vote to advance Kari Lake or Doug Mastriano, Trump’s picks for ambassador to Jamaica and Slovakia, respectively, unless he receives firm reassurance that the administration will release funds set aside for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the HIV and AIDS program credited with saving millions of lives in poor countries.
Both nominations are expected to face a vote in the committee on Wednesday. But without assurance on PEPFAR funding from the Trump administration, Cornyn could singlehandedly block the two nominations if they otherwise receive party-line backing, as Republicans hold 12 seats on the committee to Democrats’ 10.
It’s the second time in less than a week that the four-term senator has bucked the White House in the wake of his Senate primary loss to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in May. Cornyn suffered a lopsided defeat that came after the president endorsed Paxton — to the chagrin of Senate GOP leadership.
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Cornyn has taken a more passive aggressive approach to Trump ever since he lost his primary race to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He indicated it is “kind of fun” using his vote to leverage concessions from the Trump administration.
Cornyn worked hard for months to win Trump’s endorsement. He voted with the president about 99 percent of the time, shared photos of himself reading Trump’s book. The senator even went so far as to propose naming a Texas highway after the president.
But it was all for naught. Trump backed Paxton, who soundly defeated Cornyn by an embarrassing margin. After the president gave his endorsement, Cornyn wrote an X post in which he said voters must choose “a strong nominee to help our GOP candidates down ballot and defeat Talarico in November, or a weak nominee who jeopardizes everything we care about.”
Since then, Cornyn has taken shots at the president. During an interview with Semafor, he said Trump “seems to revel in chaos” and that trying to reason with him is useless because he changes his mind based on the last person he speaks with on an issue.
In another X post, Cornyn went after his opponent, saying they “are going to continue to tell the truth about Paxton” and that “He’s escaped accountability for too long.”
We are going to continue to tell the truth about Paxton. He’s escaped accountability for too long. Judgment day is coming. https://t.co/ePoUM6d1Tu
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) May 21, 2026
Still, Cornyn can only do so much to stymie Trump’s agenda given that he is months away from leaving the Senate.
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