NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When Charles Wandfluh voted in Louisiana's Republican primary over the weekend, he could only conjure the unflattering image of a panicked rodent when talking about Bill Cassidy's desperate attemp t to cling to his U.S. Senate seat despite opposition from President Donald Trump.
“He’s just a squirrel running around the tree, chasing nuts to find whatever he can get to benefit him,” said Wandfluh, 57, in a suburb of New Orleans.
Cassidy's scramble was in vain, and his defeat on Saturday demonstrated the near-impossibility of a political future within the Republican Party without Trump's acquiescence. Despite outspending his rivals, Cassidy finished third in the primary, falling short of even making a runoff. The outcome was the latest and perhaps most spectacular failure by a Republican who tried to cross Trump and get away with it.
Even within a party notorious for its political contortions during the Trump era, Cassidy stood out. As a doctor, he overlooked Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine activism to support his nomination as Trump's health secretary, only inevitably to clash with Kennedy once he took the job.
Cassidy was also unable to repair his relationship with Trump five years after voting to convict him during his impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Although Cassidy tried to assure Republican voters that he remained committed to Trump's agenda, that did not satisfy their loyalty to the Republican president.
“He was trying to portray himself side by side with Trump, like he has worked with Trump on this and that,” Wandfluh complained. “I’m like, ‘You voted to impeach the guy!'"
U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, endorsed by Trump, and state Treasurer John Fleming, a former Trump administration official, will compete for the Republican nomination on June 27.
“There is no greater endorsement than the endorsement of President Trump," said Letlow, who was first in the voting Saturday. "We’ll always be singing that from the mountaintops.”
Trump liked what he heard, posting on social media that it was a “great victory speech tonight by Julia!!!” The president stomped on Cassidy's electoral grave, describing the senator as ungrateful for previous support.
“His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!” Trump wrote.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who feuded with Trump in the past but has since become a model of loyalty to the president, had no sympathy for his vanquished colleague.
“What’s the headline? Trump’s strong. Those who try to destroy Trump politically, stand in the way of his agenda, are going to lose,” Graham said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press.” “You can disagree with President Trump, but if you try to destroy him, you’re going to lose. Because this is the party of Donald Trump.”
Graham once described Trump as a “kook” who was “unfit for office,” and he appeared to break with Trump after the Jan. 6 riot by saying “enough is enough.” But Graham did not vote to convict Trump during the impeachment trial, unlike Cassidy and six other Republican senators.
Four of them — Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania — did not run for another term afterward.
Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, who remains in office and is a vocal Trump skeptic, won reelection in 2022 when Trump was out of office. There also is Maine’s Susan Collins, who has faced Trump's wrath but not a primary challenge as she runs for a sixth term in November. As a Republican senator from a state won by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the last presidential election, she remains crucial for her party's control of Congress.
Trump's grip on his party is noteworthy given his lame-duck status — he is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third term even though he has mused about it — and his low poll numbers. He is presiding over lingering inflation, economic dissatisfaction and an unpopular war with Iran, yet Republicans remain largely in lockstep with him.
As he approaches the back half of his second term, Trump appears to be finalizing a wholesale makeover of the party that he began a decade ago, and his appetite for retribution does not appear to be waning.
Earlier this month, he successfully dislodged five Indiana state senators who opposed his redistricting plan. On Tuesday, he is backing a challenger to U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky's primary. Massie angered Trump by opposing his signature tax legislation over concerns about the national debt, pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and opposing his decision to go to war with Iran.
Over the weekend, Trump suggested that he could next target U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado because of her support for Massie.
“Even though I long ago endorsed Boebert, if the right person came along, it would be my Honor to withdraw that Endorsement, and endorse a good and proper alternative,” Trump said, although the filing deadline for Colorado candidates passed months ago.
After his defeat, Cassidy addressed Trump's influence without naming him.
“Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution,” the senator told supporters in Baton Rouge. “And it is the welfare of my people, and my state, and my country, and our Constitution to which I am loyal.”
But Trump's role was central for many Republican voters.
Mark Schulingkanp, who is 46 and works in the shipping industry, said he voted for Letlow precisely to avoid the conflict that has marked Cassidy’s relationship with Trump.
“Getting federal dollars into the state is the most important thing to me, to help people with jobs,” he said. “Clearly having a senator that the president doesn’t like could cause a challenge or impede federal dollars coming to the state for roads, bridges, so many different programs.”
Jeanelle Chachere, a 66-year-old nurse, described Cassidy as a “phony” and said she voted for Letlow solely because of Trump's endorsement.
“I’m going by what he says because I like what he does,” she said.
In a sign of how Cassidy had backed himself into a political corner, he also lost support in some quarters for going along with Trump's demands.
Mark Workman, a 75-year-old retired physician, said he voted for Fleming to punish Cassidy for backing Kennedy's confirmation.
“If Cassidy had stood up and blocked RFK, I would definitely have supported him because that would have been a strong, ballsy move,” Workman said. “He had the ability to stop him and he was too weak to do that.”
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writer Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
Attendees sit at a table during an election night watch party for Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Attendees sit during an election night watch party for Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., right, hugs a supporter during an election night watch party Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sunday billed as a “rededication of our country as One Nation under God.”
Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, worship music blared from a stage that made clear the event’s Christian focus. Arched stained-glass windows, set underneath grand columns resembling a federal building, depicted the nation’s founders alongside a white cross.
Most speakers celebrated Christianity’s ties to American history, a blending of ideas that critics flagged ahead of the prayer gathering as supporting Christian nationalism.
From the stage, the Rev. Robert Jeffress embraced the term, which is often taken as a pejorative. “If being a Christian nationalist means loving Jesus Christ and loving America, count me in,” said the prominent Southern Baptist pastor.
President Donald Trump was expected to address the gathering in a video message. Other top Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were also on the schedule as part of the celebrations this year marking 250 years of U.S. independence.
Only one name on the Rededicate 250 program was not Christian. Most were among Trump’s longtime evangelical supporters, including Paula White-Cain of the White House Faith Office and evangelist Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse.
“We are deeply concerned that what is really being rededicated is a nation to a very narrow and ideological part of the Christian faith that betrays our nation’s fundamental commitment to religious freedom,” said the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, a Baptist minister who leads the progressive Christian organization Sojourners.
The conservative Christian lineup featured guests who often argue that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, a narrative disputed by many historians and other religious traditions.
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, noted the religious diversity of early America, including Jews, Muslims and Indigenous people. “I want to shine a light on America’s history as a nation that welcomes, celebrates, and protects people of all faiths and those of no faith,” Pesner said.
Many in the crowd wore Trump hats and patriotic colors, joining the festivities under a sweltering sun.
“It’s all about Jesus,” said Denny Smith, 72, of Rhode Island, who rented a motorized scooter to traverse the National Mall.
Retha Bond, 58 and from southern Illinois, also heard Trump speak not far away on Jan. 6, 2021. She said she did not join the protesters who rioted later that day at the Capitol but has remained a steadfast Trump supporter.
“I’m not saying Trump is the savior,” Bond said. She added that "this is one of the most important things that could be going on in the world, for us to rededicate our nation back to God.”
At least one event speaker mentioned the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk from the stage. Kirk's activism has been a powerful example for Alessandra Seawright, 15, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who came to Rededicate 250 with her mother.
“I think we just need more of this in our country, and we just need to share the word of the Lord,” she said. “We love going to events like this.”
They also attended Kirk’s memorial service, which mixed Christian worship and political messages. Events like these, Seawright said, help her feel less alone in her conservative Christian beliefs.
Hegseth, who has infused Christian language and worship with his role leading the Pentagon, asked the gathering in a video to pray to “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Referencing George Washington’s faith, he said, “Let us pray without ceasing. Let us pray for our nation on bended knee.”
Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Meir Soloveichik was the only non-Christian religious leader listed on the program. To applause, he told the crowd, “Antisemitism is utterly un-American” — a seeming reference to debates dividing the right.
Soloveichik serves on the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission along with White-Cain, Graham and Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic clerics also featured on the program.
The event was organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership backed by the White House. Congressional Democrats have questioned the nonprofit’s structure and finances, which they see as a Trump-controlled end run around a separate commission charted by Congress a decade ago to prepare semiquincentennial events.
Progressive groups planned counterprogramming. Among them were the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates a strict separation of church and state, and the Christian group Faithful America.
On Thursday evening, the Interfaith Alliance projected protest slogans onto an exterior wall of the National Gallery of Art. “Democracy not theocracy,” said one. Another said: “The separation of church and state is good for both.”
Associated Press writer Peter Smith in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Dorothea and Billy Ohlandt, from North Carolina, arrive at Rededicate 250, a mostly conservative Christian prayer gathering in honor of the United States' 250th anniversary, on the National Mall, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The stage is seen ahead of Rededicate 250, a mostly conservative Christian prayer gathering in honor of the United States' 250th anniversary, on the National Mall, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
People worship to Christian music at Rededicate 250, a mostly conservative Christian prayer gathering in honor of the United States' 250th anniversary, on the National Mall, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
People worship to Christian music at Rededicate 250, a mostly conservative Christian prayer gathering in honor of the United States' 250th anniversary, on the National Mall, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
People worship to Christian music at Rededicate 250, a mostly conservative Christian prayer gathering in honor of the United States' 250th anniversary, on the National Mall, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Secretary of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, of La., Secretary of State Marco Rubio Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. Chief of Protocol of the United States Ambassador Monica Crowley Dr. Ben Carson, Founder and Chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute Major General Patrick Brady, USA (Ret.) Medal of Honor Recipient and retired United States Army Major General President of Hillsdale College Dr. Larry Arnn speaks during the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A guest attends the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Dorothea Ohlandt, from North Carolina, arrives at Rededicate 250, a mostly conservative Christian prayer gathering in honor of the United States' 250th anniversary, on the National Mall, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A person prays during Rededicate 250, a mostly conservative Christian prayer gathering in honor of the United States' 250th anniversary, on the National Mall, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A guest attends the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Guest attend the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A guest attends the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A guest attends the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A guest attends the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A guest dressed as Abraham Lincoln attends the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
