President Donald Trump has helped a GOP lawmaker and national union leader finally squash their feud after making headlines in 2023 for their verbal spat on the Senate floor, telling each other to “stand” their “butt(s) up,” during an argument.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien made headlines in November 2023 for their heated argument after the representative confronted the union boss on his critical tweets.
Now, the two men say President Trump has brought them together after a phone call.
“Even after President Trump and Sean O’Brien sat down and talked, one of the first phone calls he made was to me and said, ‘Hey Markwayne, I think you guys will get along. You guys need to talk because I think we got a place for the unions to come in and it starts with Sean. Why don’t you guys just sit down and break bread together?’ Sean and I broke bread together for the first time, and we have truly built a friendship ever since then,” Rep. Markwayne Mullin told “Hannity” on Thursday.
The pair is now joining together to endorse Trump nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
“We are working very hard, both of us, to do what’s right for the American worker,” Teamsters president Sean O’Brien told Fox News. “Now, we can agree to disagree on right to work. We can agree to disagree on the Pro Act, but the task at hand right now is getting Lori Chavez-DeRemer confirmed, and we’re going to work together. Look, we did have a fight. We did have an argument, but it is what it is. It’s in the past.”
GOP LAWMAKER REVEALS BACKSTORY OF NEARLY COMING TO BLOWS WITH UNION BOSS AT SENATE HEARING
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – JULY 15: President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Sean O’Brien speaks on stage on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
“You tweeted at me one, two, three, four, five times,” video shows Mullin addressing the leader during their viral confrontation. “Let me read what the last one said. It said, ‘Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self-made.’ Sorry, I wish he was in the truck with me when I was building my plumbing company myself. … ‘Quit the tough guy act in these Senate hearings. You know where to find me any place, any time, cowboy.’ Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth. We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.”
O’Brien responded he was fine with that, and Mullin said, “Well, stand your butt up, then.”
“You stand your butt up,” O’Brien responded, causing chaos on the floor with interruptions from onlookers to stop.
Senator Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Al Drago)
Mullin reflected that his new “friendship” with O’Brien represents unity under the commander-in-chief.
“What Sean and I’s friendship represents is President Trump reaching outside the norm of the political boundaries that the Republican Party had put on ourselves and brought a coalition together, like with Tulsi Gabbard, with Bobby.”