Washington’s latest drama unfolded with a fiery social media outburst from President Donald Trump, as the U.S. Senate skedaddled for its monthlong August recess without confirming dozens of his nominees.
NewsNationNow reported that the Senate’s failure to reach a bipartisan agreement on nominations, despite heated talks and a rare weekend session, left Trump fuming and Republicans mulling drastic rule changes for September.
For weeks, Trump has been leaning hard on Senate Republicans to ditch the August break and push through his picks for various posts.
Despite days of back-and-forth, Republicans and Democrats couldn’t hammer out a deal, even with a tempting offer from the GOP to reverse some Trump administration foreign aid cuts in exchange for moving a batch of nominees.
The Senate even held a rare Saturday session, hoping to wrap things up, but talks collapsed like a house of cards in a windstorm.
“Several different times we thought we had a deal, but we didn’t close it out,” lamented Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Well, isn’t that the understatement of the year—Washington’s inability to seal the deal is practically a national pastime now.
As frustrations boiled over, Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday evening, blasting Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer with a blunt “GO TO HELL!”
He didn’t stop there, urging Republicans to reject any compromise and “go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are,” as if the partisan divide needed more fuel on the fire.
While the rhetoric is undeniably sharp, it’s hard to ignore the president’s exasperation with a process that seems designed to stall rather than solve.
Democrats, for their part, have dug in their heels, blocking more nominees than ever by denying quick unanimous consent votes and forcing time-eating roll call votes that drag on for days.
“We have never seen nominees as flawed, as unqualified as we have right now,” Schumer declared, justifying the obstruction. But let’s be real—both sides have played this game of nominee whack-a-mole for decades, escalating tactics to frustrate the other party’s agenda.
Schumer also shrugged off Trump’s verbal barrage, stating, “Donald Trump tried to bully us, go around us, threaten us, call us names, but he got nothing.” That’s a bold claim when the stalemate benefits no one, least of all the American people waiting for a functioning government.
Over the past two decades, both parties have turned nominee confirmations into a political blood sport, with Senate rules being tweaked bit by bit to make the process less about consensus and more about raw power.
Back in 2013, Democrats slashed the 60-vote threshold for lower court picks to bypass Republican blocks on Obama’s nominees, and in 2017, Republicans returned the favor for Supreme Court nominees when Democrats stonewalled Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Now, with Democrats refusing even a handful of quick confirmations—a first in recent memory—Republicans are eyeing another round of rule changes come September to speed things up.
“I think they’re desperately in need of change,” Thune remarked, and frankly, who can argue when the current system grinds progress to a halt?