Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) unleashed on President Donald Trump in a new interview published in Semafor on Monday. Trump endorsed Cornyn’s controversial primary opponent, Ken Paxton, last month, helping to officially end Cornyn’s decades-long career as Paxton won the race and Cornyn will exit the Senate at the beginning of 2027.

Cornyn spoke to Semafor’s Congressional Bureau Chief Burgess Everett and made clear he plans to use his last months in office to make a lasting impact and has no issue disrupting Trump’s agenda where he sees fit.

Cornyn told Everett that conversations with Trump are not “particularly useful because he 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 added, referring to Trump installing a loyalist with no intelligence experience to lead all of U.S. intel.

Cornyn took a swipe at some of his GOP colleagues when discussing Trump’s more controversial appointments, arguing that some Senate Republicans have emboldened Trump to make outlandish picks.

Everett reported that Cornyn “singled out” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), quoting the Texas Senator as saying Lee thinks “somehow we’re going to beat the opponents into submission.”

“Well, I’ve worked here a long time. It doesn’t work that way,” Cornyn added.

Cornyn, however, made clear to Semafor he’s not explicitly trying to attack or damage Trump and that he will be open to Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general – even if he is currently undecided. Everett reported Cornyn has some reservations about Blanche:

Cornyn isn’t letting Blanche breeze out of committee, though. At their one-on-one meeting, he broached a tough subject: What Blanche would do if Trump asked him directly to break the law.

Blanche replied that “‘I hesitate to answer the question, because I don’t want to suggest the president would ever ask me to do anything inappropriate,’” Cornyn recalled.

“But he said if [Trump] did, and it was something that he felt like he could not in good conscience do, that he would resign.”

Cornyn offered a larger warning to the GOP ahead of the midterms, arguing that Trump’s behavior threatens to drive away traditional Republicans. Cornyn hit back at Texas Republicans, calling him a “sore loser” following Paxton’s victory, and warned the Texas GOP is at risk of “basically continuing to alienate what I would call traditional conservative Republicans like me, and the people who voted for me. Makes no sense whatsoever.”
Cornyn also made clear that he will not use his significant fundraising machine to help Paxton.

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

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