When Trump first took office, Cruz pushed to overhaul the filibuster because he thought Democrats would eventually do the same. He now admits he was wrong.

It’s possible that at some point over the next four years, Donald Trump – who called for an overhaul of what he called the “outdated” Senate filibuster during his first term – will again grow impatient with the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold for passing legislation.

But if he calls for its abolition, as he did not too long ago, he will run into opposition from at least one of the Republican senators who once had his ear. During a wide-ranging interview with National Review about his commerce committee chairmanship, Senator Ted Cruz (R., Tex.) expressed his own newfound commitment to protecting the Senate’s arcane rule. 

“No, I do not support ending the filibuster, and I do not believe there is any possibility the Senate will end the filibuster,” he tells National Review, confessing that “this is an issue on which I have changed my views over the years.” At the start of the first Trump administration, Cruz supported overhauling the Senate’s 60-vote threshold over concerns that Democrats would do the same once they retook the majority. “I will say that prediction proves slightly off,” he admits.

Schumer’s efforts to nuke the filibuster were of course stymied by centrist former senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin during the Biden years, meaning that for now, at least, the filibuster is here to stay. 

“Given that the Democrats did not pull the trigger, I’m not willing to pull the trigger,” Cruz said, adding: “I don’t know of any senator on the Republican side who is in support of ending the filibuster, so I think the chances of it happening are zero.”

Newly elected Senate GOP Leader John Thune is sounding a similar tune, pledging in his first floor speech as Mitch McConnell’s successor that he will fight tooth and nail to preserve the rule to “ensure the Senate stays the Senate.”