Sen. Mike Lee is thriving in the Trump era, which has upended the Republican Party and left many of his colleagues smarting over the president’s erratic style. | Melina Mara-Pool/Getty Images Congress Mike Lee isn’t tired of winning under Trump The Utah Republican fiercely opposed Trump in 2016. Now he’s ready to endorse the president in 2020 after finding success in the Trump era.

In 2016, Sen. Mike Lee made a last-ditch attempt at the Republican National Convention to derail Donald Trump from winning his party’s presidential nomination — shouting on the floor until the convention chair walked off the stage. Two-and-a-half years later, he’s ready to endorse Trump’s reelection campaign.

“Look, I had some concerns and I expressed those,” Lee said in an interview. “I’ve been pleased with the number of things he’s done, and he’s been very helpful to me on criminal justice reform. … I’ve talked to him a lot and talking to him helps me develop a relationship with him.”


“I quite like him,” Lee said, adding that he intends to endorse Trump’s presidential bid this time around.

The Utah Republican is thriving in the Trump era, which has upended the Republican Party and left many of Lee’s colleagues smarting over the president’s erratic style. But while hawkish Republicans seethed as the president pulled out of Syria and upended plans to avert a government shutdown, December has been a good month for the libertarian-leaning Lee, who backs Trump in both fights.

Lee played a key role in pushing the Trump-backed prison and sentencing overhaul in the face of resistance from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He even kept his own whip count in a bid to pressure leadership before the bill was ultimately passed — something Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn derided as “kind of a side show.”

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And despite McConnell’s opposition, Lee also forced to the floor a resolution to withdraw U.S. support for the Saudi-backed war in Yemen. The measure, co-sponsored with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), passed the Senate with bipartisan support.

“Those two issues,” Lee said, “are examples of what can happen with an idea when you cultivate it and nurture it over the course of many years.”

Meanwhile, Lee continues to strengthen ties with Trump, lunching with him and a handful of other conservative lawmakers at the White House amid a government shutdown that GOP leaders sought to avoid. “I’m a big believer in the need to bolster border security and I think he is right to place emphasis on that,” Lee said of Trump.

Lee’s spate of successes underscores his unique strategy: He works around party leaders to get his priorities implemented. It’s rubbed many of his GOP colleagues the wrong way, even as his influence has grown with a hard-line president.

Lee, who has a reputation as something of a loner in the Senate, isn’t abandoning his rogue tactics. Before the Senate left for the holidays he blocked passage of a bipartisan public lands bill, drawing scorn from Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.). Yet not long after Gardner yelled at Lee on the floor, the two hugged it out, Lee said. As Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) put it, when Lee “disagrees with his Republican colleagues he does it in a way that sometimes maintains friendships, unlike some other members of his caucus.”

As to Lee’s relationship with Senate leadership, he will be “an independent actor until the day he dies,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a frequent foreign policy foe.

During his eight years in the Senate, Lee has played several roles, from Sen. Ted Cruz’s closest political ally to bipartisan dealmaker. He’s repeatedly challenged Senate leadership, but next year he is set to chair the Joint Economic Committee and will be included in influential chairmen’s meetings. He will also again lead the conservative Steering Committee, which meets weekly and represents the chamber’s conservative Republicans.

Though Lee still embraces the confrontational tea party politics that swept him into office and took out establishment-backed incumbent Bob Bennett in 2010, he’s also earning plenty of praise from his Democratic colleagues.

“Mike Lee was one of the earliest people I worked with as a United States senator on [criminal justice reform],” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). “I still remember I was hours-old as a senator sitting on the subway with him talking about these issues. He’s been such a good partner of mine, and he should be celebrated as one of the champions.”

Lee’s Senate colleagues describe him as hardworking and a stalwart supporter of conservative values. But he also fought publicly with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) over criminal justice reform and keeps Senate leadership at arms length.

He tangled with Cornyn for weeks over how much support the criminal justice bill had. Each said he was right, although the final 87-12 vote reflected Lee’s whip count, which many in the party described as overly optimistic at the time.

Cornyn describes Lee as “a passionate guy” and that “there was just some misunderstanding about which whip count that the leader relies on.”

Back in 2016, Lee attempted to join Senate leadership by arguing that the party’s top members were subject to term limits earlier than expected, a reading of the rules that his colleagues rejected. He doesn’t seem eager to seek a formal leadership post now.

Lee said that while he doesn’t agree with Senate GOP leaders on every issue, he tries not to surprise anyone.

“I try to send signals to where I’m going, what I’m willing to do, what I’m not,” he said.

But just one day after the Senate passed the criminal justice reform bill, Lee stunned his Republican colleagues by blocking a vote on a public lands package led by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Lee complained that the bill was airdropped on him just that morning. The argument fell flat among some of his colleagues, who privately groused that he was rewriting criminal justice reform on the fly, too.

“I’m pretty doggone upset,” Gardner yelled at Lee on the Senate floor. “Wonder why people are sick of this place? Because of tonight.”

While Lee has often found himself at odds with Senate colleagues, he’s capitalized on his relationship with the Trump administration to advance his priorities. Lee worked with Jared Kushner on criminal justice reform and with Ivanka Trump on a child tax credit that was included in the GOP’s tax overhaul.

“That’s an example of something that didn’t germinate, wasn’t planted by leadership necessarily but it was a good idea,” Lee said of the tax credit.

Next year, Lee plans to continue working with Ivanka Trump and Senate Republicans on a proposal that would allow new parents to use their Social Security benefits to take parental leave when a child is born and pay the money back later. He also sees an opportunity to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia, particularly with Democratic control of the House.

Lee describes his strategy as waiting for the right moment for an idea to succeed. The Yemen resolution gained momentum after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the administration’s refusal to directly link Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Khashoggi’s killing.

“The stars aligned,” he said.

Lee was also a rare GOP voice applauding Trump’s move to pull U.S. troops out of Syria. Trump returned the favor, citing Lee approvingly in a tweet defending his Syria decision.

For someone so used to going it alone, Lee’s found a surprising ally in the White House.

“I had real concerns about him,” the senator said of the president, “and have been very pleased.”

