Donald Trump/Truth Social
President Donald Trump demanded that Senate Republicans end the filibuster amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Trump had previously called for an end to the Senate custom, but on Wednesday, he gave his most forceful and detailed case against it. In a three-and-a-half-minute video posted to Truth Social, the president began by commending Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for “doing a great job,” but called on Thune to eliminate the filibuster. To advance most legislation in the Senate, 60 votes are required to invoke cloture, which ends debate.
Republicans control the upper chamber 53-47, and currently lack the seven Democratic votes needed to advance a spending bill that would end the shutdown. Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is demanding that Republicans agree to extend healthcare premium subsidies for Obamacare recipients as a condition for receiving the requisite Democratic votes. The GOP has so far refused.
“It’s now time for the Republicans to play their trump card and go for what’s called the nuclear option,” the president said in the video. “Get rid of the filibuster and get rid of it now. We can make our country so strong, so great, we can do all the things that we wanted to do.”
Trump went on to claim that the next time Democrats control the Senate, they will do away with the filibuster anyway.
“It was their idea originally, Obama and Harry Reid, in order to screw the Republicans,” Trump said, referring to the late Democratic Sen. majority leader, who in 2013 eliminated the filibuster for district and appellate judicial nominees after Republicans blocked a slew of judicial nominees. When Republicans retook the Senate, they nixed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.
“And now we can turn it around and we can screw the Democrats and make our country so strong,” Trump continued. “Well, now we’re in power and we could do it and we should do it, and it should be done immediately, end this ridiculous country-destroying shutdown, among many other things.”
He added, “The Democrats want to end the filibuster. It will be the first day that they get into office. Don’t you understand that, Republicans?”
