President Trump blasted Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and told him to “GO TO HELL” as a fight over confirming executive branch political nominees boiled over and dozens of potential appointees were left in limbo.
Trump had wanted the Senate to stay in session and clear up the backlog of presidential appointees, but a deal between Republicans and Democrats to push through the nominees fell apart.
Senators went home for their August recess without confirming a slate of Trump’s nominees — leaving the president fuming.
“Senator Cryin’ Chuck Schumer is demanding over One Billion Dollars in order to approve a small number of our highly qualified nominees, who should right now be helping to run our Country,” the president fumed on Truth Social.
“This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted. It is political extortion, by any other name. Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!”
Many Republicans had been hoping to get just over 130 nominees from the backlog confirmed before the August recess.
Many of these types of civilian nominees breeze through the Senate via voice vote or unanimous confirmation. But Democrats took advantage of Senate rules to significantly delay confirmation of those picks.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) groused that no other president in recent history has faced so much obstruction.
Thune negotiated with Schumer (D-NY) on a deal to bundle up Trump’s picks to allow voting for them in bulk. In one iteration of the deal, the Senate would have voted on a batch of the picks before breaking for recess, and then another chunk when the upper chamber reconvenes.
But it appears that Democrats wanted guarantees from Trump that he would unfreeze some of the funding his administration had cut off for foreign aid and the National Institute of Health.
“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. Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump added.
Senators had been getting antsy, and tensions were high as the standoff had begun cutting into the August recess.
Thune agreed to allow the typical pro forma sessions to continue, a process by which the Senate holds ceremonial sessions to prevent presidential recess appointments, which would allow Trump’s picks to get through without Senate approval.
Some Republicans flirted with the idea and with the possibility of going “nuclear” and rolling back the rules that enable Democrats to hold up the nominees. However, it is unclear if the GOP has a majority for that, as many moderate Republicans want to preserve Senate norms so they can block Democratic picks when the Republicans are in the minority again.
“There were several different times where I think either or both sides maybe thought there was a deal in the end,” Thune said of negotiations with Schumer, noting there were a lot of different ideas floated.
Schumer, who has faced constant pressure from the progressive base to put up more of a fight against Trump, later took a victory lap.
“Let me clear what happened: Donald Trump attempted to steamroll the Senate to put in place his historically unqualified nominees. But Senate Democrats wouldn’t let him,” Schumer said on X.
“Donald Trump’s style: Posture[,] Cajole[,] Stamp your feet… and then give up,” the top Senate Democrat later gloated on X afterwards.
Some senators floated the idea of making rules changes when the Senate reconvenes in September, before dealing with the partial government shutdown fight.
They head home slightly ahead of schedule on the government shutdown showdown, having passed 3 of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government and with about half of the remaining bills having cleared committee.
That’s the first time since 2018 that the Senate has passed government funding bills before breaking for August recess, according to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine). If Congress fails to take action, the government will enter a partial shutdown on Oct. 1.