Senate Majority Leader John Thune issued a reality check to President Donald Trump on Monday, as the president continues to demand that senators rewrite their own rules.
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Trump has been demanding several changes to force his agenda through, including the elimination of the legislative filibuster, which has been a consistent obstacle to his SAVE America Act package of voting restrictions, as well as eliminating “blue slips” that allow senators to unilaterally reject certain executive and judicial nominees from their home states.
These rules have often frustrated presidents in both parties, although ironically, the filibuster has historically benefited Republicans more than Democrats, since a greater percentage of their agenda can be passed through federal courts and budget bills.
There’s still not the appetite to make those changes, said Thune — even on the GOP side.
According to Semafor’s Burgess Everett, Thune told reporters he has “sat down with about 20 Republicans, and on getting rid of the legislative filibuster, getting rid of blue slips, and there were 15 nos. So I mean, this is not an open question. It’s just a fact, and the facts don’t change.”
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Thune added that if Trump wants these changes in the Senate to be on the table, he would have to do the heavy lifting of getting those senators to change their minds.
“If [Trump] can change the facts and start moving some of those senators who are no’s into yeses, then we have a different conversation,” Thune told Everett.
Trump’s most recent rant against the filibuster came earlier in the day, when he proclaimed on his Truth Social account that Thune shouldn’t allow the Senate to adjourn until the changes are made, because “the Dumocrats will do it on day one, and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!”
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