John Cornyn has finally found the nerve to defy President Donald Trump.

The U.S. senator from Texas recently held up two of Trump’s ambassador nominees, Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano, until the White House agreed to release more than $270 million in funding for PEPFAR, the AIDS relief program that has saved more than 26 million lives since President George W. Bush launched it in 2003.

Playing hardball with a president almost nobody in his party dares to cross looked, at first glance, like real political courage. There was just one problem: Cornyn had already lost his Republican Senate primary. He found his courage the moment it stopped costing him anything.

When courage becomes free

Weeks earlier, Trump had endorsed Ken Paxton, Texas’ indicted attorney general, over Cornyn in the GOP primary, and Cornyn got crushed. His 24-year Senate career ends in January. For the first time in years, Cornyn no longer has to worry about Trump deciding his political future – and it shows.

He “seems to revel in chaos,” Cornyn recently said of the president he spent years defending. He’s begun using his vote as leverage, first to secure border........

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