Photo: Alamy
The Senate adjourned Saturday night for its August recess without reaching an agreement to advance President Donald Trump’s stalled nominations, ending days of tense negotiations and public sparring that culminated in the president telling Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL.”
The result leaves dozens of executive and judicial nominees in limbo until at least September. Senate Republicans, frustrated by the pace of confirmations, say they may push to change chamber rules to prevent similar delays in the future.
“I think they’re desperately in need of change,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. “I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations, is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.”
Trump has been pressuring Senate Republicans to cancel the August break and confirm his nominees through extended floor sessions. Democrats have withheld unanimous consent and forced time-consuming roll call votes on each nominee.
Negotiations between Senate leaders and the White House had advanced throughout the week, with talks centering on a possible trade: Democrats would allow a large batch of nominees to proceed in exchange for reversing some Trump administration cuts to foreign aid.
“Democrats, led by Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, are slow walking my Nominees, more than 150 of them. They wanted us to pay, originally, two billion dollars for approvals. The Dems are CRAZED LUNATICS!!!” Trump wrote late Sunday on Truth Social.
On Saturday, the Senate held an unusual weekend session as Republican leaders tried to push through more confirmations. But the effort collapsed after Trump weighed in with a Truth Social post attacking Schumer and ordering Republicans to leave town.
“Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!” Trump wrote in another post. “Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country.”
It marks the first time in decades that the minority party has refused to allow even routine confirmations before the August break. Thune has already extended Senate floor time this year in an attempt to confirm as many of Trump’s nominees as possible.