Republican extorts White House for funding after Trump betrayal

Political analysts have joked for the last few weeks that members of the Republican Party who have lost their primaries but still have until the end of the year to govern have become part of the informal "YOLO Caucus," meaning "you only live once." According to an exclusive Semafor interview with outgoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), he has started flexing his voting power to get what he wants before leaving.

In one incident, Cornyn extorted the White House out of funds that his state had been owed for over a year. In 2025, Congress allocated more than $10 billion in funds for border security, but until Cornyn acted, Texas hadn't seen a dime of it.

“Basically, I told Senator Barrasso and Senator [John] Thune: ‘There’s a price for my vote, and it is to get the administration to release the money,’” Cornyn said in his interview with Semafor.

White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russel Vought quickly called, promising "we’ll put a notice of funding."

Cornyn, who has been a loyal supporter of Trump's initiatives, voting with him 99.2 percent of the time, but Trump never returned the loyalty, endorsing Cornyn's scandal-plagued opponent, Ken Paxton.

“That’s one example I think of what you can do when you have some cards to play," said Cornyn of his newly discovered powers.

Cornyn is also ready to be a thorn in Trump's side over his appointment of Todd Blanche for the attorney general spot. He said he's not a solid supporter, but he's willing to "listen."

The four-term senator also isn't going to help his opponent. Instead, he's opting to help his friends and allies in tough races in Maine, Michigan and New Hampshire.

“The president picked Paxton, and he’s got $350 million dollars. I think he can spend his money,” Cornyn said of Texas and Trump. “I’m going to try to help in other places.”

Cornyn isn't the first Senator to the mock caucus. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) lost his primary in May after a Trump-supported Republican ousted him. The founder could easily be considered Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who announced he was retiring after a number of public battles with Trump. He has become less fearful of the president's wrath in the past several months.

Cassidy told Semafor that he and Cornyn were "like-minded in the sense that we’re both not returning, and that gives a certain focus. And he’s conveyed he’s got no illusions about the president."

That said, he added, they're not scheming "in a smoke-filled room."

Cornyn frequently spoke to the president while serving as the Majority Whip, but doing so wasn't “particularly useful,” he said. Trump "can and will change his mind depending on the next person he talks to on the phone. The president seems to revel in chaos, which is so different from any other leader that I’ve ever seen. I don’t know about you, but I like to minimize the chaos in my life. He just seems to revel in it. We’ve seen even recent evidence of it on the DNI."

Cornyn went on to mock colleague Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who thinks “somehow we’re going to beat the opponents into submission." By opponents, he means the Democrats. The Texas lawmaker explained to the younger Lee, “I’ve worked here a long time. It doesn’t work that way."

The GOP lawmaker promises he's not a member of the "YOLO caucus"; rather, “I am free to disagree." Before was another matter.

Other than helping fund GOP candidates outside of Texas, he's thinking about possible contenders for the 2028 presidential election. While Cornyn is trying to decide between Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he joked he didn't want to "jinx either one of them."

“But don’t tell Ted Cruz that, because Ted wants to be the next president," he added.

Cruz ran for president in 2016, during which he was outspoken in his opposition to Trump.

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