Washington: When I arrived in Washington at the start of 2025, one of the first names on Capitol Hill I paid attention to was Republican senator Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana.
A gastroenterologist who served in the Louisiana state senate before being elected to Congress and then the federal Senate, he was a respected figure who was looming as a potential handbrake on some of Donald Trump’s more outlandish appointments.
As a physician, Cassidy had serious concerns about one pick in particular: vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy to become secretary of health. After grilling Kennedy at his confirmation hearing, Cassidy said he was struggling with the idea of voting for him.
But he did. He also provided a crucial vote for Pete Hegseth to become defence secretary, despite reservations about the former Fox News host’s qualifications for the job. He also flirted with the notion of opposing Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, but ultimately voted for her, too.
When I saw Cassidy in the corridors of the Senate recently, I asked him whether he had any concerns about Trump’s mental health, in the light of some pretty outlandish social media posts, including one portraying himself as Jesus. Cassidy looked at me quizzically and said: “No. Where did that come from?”
Cassidy exemplifies the difficulty of being a non-MAGA Republican in a political party dominated by Trump’s loyal foot soldiers. He has put aside his well-founded objections to certain Trump people and policies to bend to the White House’s will.
In some cases, he extracted concessions, such as a pledge that Kennedy would retain the Centres for Disease Control’s advisory committee on immunisation. While Kennedy technically retained it, he retired all 17 members and “repopulated” it with his own people, many of whom are also known vaccine sceptics.
To what avail did Cassidy try to earn the president’s good graces? None. Up for re-election this year, Cassidy was challenged for the seat by another Republican – Julia Letlow – who was fervently endorsed by Trump.
At Saturday’s primary election among Republican voters, Letlow won comfortably, ending – for now at least – Cassidy’s 20-year political career.
For all his efforts to work with Trump, Cassidy was never able to get himself in the president’s good books. He was never going to be able to compensate for voting to impeach Trump in January 2021 following the pro-Trump riots at the Capitol on January 6.
“Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is a disloyal disaster,” Trump told his followers on Saturday. “His entire past campaign for the Senate was about ‘TRUMP’, how he’s with me all the way, and then, after winning, he turned around and voted to IMPEACH me for something that has now proven to be total ‘bullshit!’”
The president went on to call Cassidy a “sleazebag” and a “terrible guy” who was bad for Louisiana.
Much is said these days about Trump’s political standing: that he is weakened by poor polling ahead of the approaching midterm elections, and that he may soon be rendered a lame duck president.
But among Republican voters, Trump’s power is virtually undiminished. His endorsement is still king, as shown not only in Louisiana but in recent primary elections for the Indiana state senate.
The president involved himself in the election by endorsing candidates in seven contests. He was trying to unseat incumbent Republicans who opposed plans to redraw the congressional electoral map of Indiana to advantage Republicans – a blatant gerrymander.
It worked. The Trump-backed candidates prevailed in five of the seven seats, while in another race, Trump’s candidate ended up losing by just three votes.
On Tuesday, he will get the chance to do it again, with Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie facing a primary challenge from Trump-aligned farmer and retired Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.
Massie has clashed regularly and loudly with Trump – he led the push to release the Epstein Files, voted against Trump’s signature Big Beautiful Bill because it would increase budget deficits, and criticised the war in Iran.
The president hates him, calling him “the worst and most unreliable Republican congressman in the history of our country”, and imploring followers to “get this LOSER out of politics”.
It is already the most expensive House of Representatives primary battle in US history, with more than $US25 million ($35 million) spent on advertising alone, according to AdImpact.
Polls are varied, but a Quantum Insights survey last week of 908 likely Republican voters put Gallrein ahead by five percentage points.
It adds up to a clear conclusion: among red state Republicans, Trump remains as potent a political force as he has ever been. Trumpism is here to stay.
Cassidy, the Louisiana senator, was gracious in conceding defeat on Saturday night – and finally said what he really thought about Trump.
“When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to,” he said. “But you don’t pout, you don’t whine, you don’t claim the election was stolen.”
Cassidy went on: “Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution. And it is the welfare of my people and my state and my country and our Constitution to which I am loyal.
“And if someone doesn’t understand that, and attempts to control others through the levers of power, they are about serving themselves – they are not about serving us. And that person is not qualified to be a leader.”
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