The three leading candidates to replace Senator McConnell as the Senate’s Republican leader are not inspiring confidence among those close to President Trump, multiple sources tell the Sun. The three lawmakers seen most likely to win the spot — known collectively as “the Three Johns” on Capitol Hill — are close with Mr. McConnell.

Senators Cornyn, Barrasso, and Thune are all widely expected to run to replace Mr. McConnell after the 2024 elections, following the Kentuckian’s announcement that he would step down after this year’s election. 

Yet there are other candidates that Trumpworld would like to see run, including Senators Paul, Cotton, and Scott of Florida. One Republican who is close with the former president and his team says that Mr. Paul would be the best fit to work with Mr. Trump should he return to the White House in 2025. 

“What President Trump needs is an ally and leader in the Senate who is knowledgeable and thoughtful, and also a fighter with a consistent track record,” the source says. He added that Mr. Paul would be the best Senate leader to send “Republic-saving pieces of legislation to President Trump’s desk.”

Another source says that Mr. Scott is “probably” the best fit to work with the 45th president. When the Floridian challenged Mr. McConnell for the leadership position in late 2022, Mr. Scott won the support of a conservative bloc of senators, including Senators Cruz, Lee, Vance, Johnson, and Schmitt. 

Mr. Cotton is also a favorite of some Trump allies. One person close to the former president said Mr. Cotton would make an “excellent” leader for the Senate GOP, noting that he has “rarely” been wrong on the issues that matter most to the Republican base. 

According to Politico, Mr. Trump himself has pushed for Senator Daines to run for the top spot. Mr. Daines — who currently leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee and could be the man who delivers the Senate majority this fall — has worked closely with Mr. Trump in the past, and endorsed him early in the 2024 Republican primary. 

Mr. Cornyn officially announced his candidacy for leader on Thursday, saying that “the Senate is broken,” but asserting that he knows how to fix it. The senior senator of Texas faced some immediate backlash online, though. His work on a bipartisan gun control bill and support for making Juneteenth a national holiday have won him some enemies on the right. 

“Cornyn is not fit to serve as part of the Republican Senate leadership team,” a friend of Donald Trump Jr., Arthur Schwartz, says. The Gun Owners of America also came out against Mr. Cornyn in an interview with the Daily Caller, saying, “The United States Senate deserves a conservative pro-gun leader, and John Cornyn is not that person, it seems. I’ll say every time a gun issue comes up: He’s right there with a compromise. And that’s not leadership.”

Even the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, says that his senator has “waved the white flag” on nearly every issue important to Republican voters, hinting that he may face a primary challenge in 2026. Mr. Cornyn said in response that it would be “hard to run from prison.”

Mr. Thune has sparred with the former president in the past, saying he had made “inexcusable” efforts to “undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power” in the wake of the 2020 election. 

Mr. Barrasso has a warmer relationship with Mr. Trump. He is the  only member of Senate Republican leadership to endorse Mr. Trump ahead of the Iowa caucuses. He remained in the former president’s good graces when he refused to endorse Congresswoman Liz Cheney in her 2022 Republican primary in their native Wyoming.