Senate Republicans say they’re ready for a new start with President-elect Trump after years of misgivings and mistrust that sometimes boiled over into all-out war between the disruptor-in-chief and members of Washington’s traditional GOP establishment.

Trump’s critics in the Senate GOP conference are trying to reconcile themselves with what they privately view as some of Trump’s outlandish pronouncements and wrongheaded policy choices.

Those include proposals to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland and to slap 25-percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico.

They acknowledge he won a sweeping victory in the 2024 election, which hardly any of them foresaw before the presidential primary.

Even so, tensions remain between Republican senators and Trump over tariffs, the strategy for passing his agenda and some of his controversial Cabinet picks, such as Director of National Intelligence-nominee Tulsi Gabbard.

At the same time Senate Republicans recognize that Trump’s critics within the party have either come around to embracing him or have found themselves relegated to the sidelines of power.

“He did better than all of us politically. It’s in our interest to keep working with him,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s staunchest allies, referring to Trump’s strong performance in the 2024 election, in which 89 percent of the nation’s counties shifted in Trump’s favor.

“Personally, I want him to be successful, he’s a friend,” said Graham, who golfs with Trump.

But he acknowledged that Trump and Senate Republicans don’t see eye-to-eye on some major issues, such as the best strategy for passing border-security funding and a major tax package.

“We still have tension about to proceed with reconciliation,” Graham, the Senate Budget Committee chairman, said of the divergent views over whether to break up Trump’s agenda into two packages or pass it in one big bill, as Trump prefers, under the budget reconciliation process to avoid a Democratic filibuster.

“It’s not that we don’t want him to be successful but we all have different views on important topics,” he........

© The Hill