In several Truth Social posts over the weekend, President Donald Trump accused Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), of extortion, saying that they had demanded up to two billion in exchange for confirming his nominees.
Due to the Democrats’ partisan gamesmanship, Senate negotiations fell apart over the weekend, leaving more than 150 of the president’s nominees unconfirmed ahead of the August recess.
Now Senate Republicans allegedly plan to change Senate rules when they return from their break to help Trump get his cabinet nominees through the Upper Chamber.
“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,” Trump wrote on Saturday, adding “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! 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!!!
In a follow-up post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “THE DEMOCRATS ARE EXTORTIONISTS WHO ALMOST DESTROYED OUR COUNTRY. NOW WE ARE BACK, AND THE USA IS THE “HOTTEST” COUNTRY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Aug. 1 considered the option of recess appointments to help Trump get his nominees through, but that would have required the consent of the Senate, according to Epoch Times.
Instead, the Senate agreed by unanimous consent at 7:53 p.m. EDT on Aug. 2 to Thune’s request for the recess with pro-forma sessions every three days during the time off, meaning that Trump is unable to make recess appointments before the Senate reassembles in September. The next Senate vote is scheduled for Sept. 2.
Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) explained what went down between Senate Democrats and President Trump on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”.
“I’ve spoken with President Trump a lot in the past 24 hours. Senate Democrats demanded a billion dollars in pet projects to move forward his nominees,” Mullin told Fox host Maria Bartiromo. “Trump told them to pound sand. NO DEAL.”
Mullin explained that 61 of the president’s nominees have already been voted out of committee and are awaiting floor votes. For the past few days, according to Mullin, Trump had been working behind the scenes with several Republican senators to strike a deal with Democrats “for a hostage release.”
“President Trump is the first president in history not to have one single nominee go through by UC—that’s unanimous consent—or by a voice vote,” Mullin said, adding that during the negotiations, Democrats kept upping the ante.
In the past, the Senate has approved large numbers of appointees in a single package, with the opposing party understanding that a new president has the right to choose his cabinet.
“So we’re trying to break the logjam and the price kept going up,” he told Bartiromo. “A lot of this had to do with money going to Gaza,” he explained. “Keep in mind, Hamas hasn’t even released the hostages.”
Mullin further explained that as the Democrats’ price went up, the number of nominees they would approve went down “to the point that President Trump late last night said ‘go pound sand.'”
On Sunday, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Democrats, lead 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!!!”
The senator explained to Bartiromo that it’s normal for a certain amount of negotiating to take place between parties to get nominations through, but the Democrats had taken it to an egregious level.
“None of us wanted to work with the Biden administration, but all of us feel like regardless of who the president is, they have the right to put their people into place. So we held our nose in 2021 and actually struck a deal … to allow 44 nominees to go through in the Biden administration,” he said. “What’s happened now is their hatred of Donald Trump and their fear of their base has kept them from being able to move forward at all.”
Mullin said the reason why Schumer was making such unreasonable demands was because Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Liz Warren (D-Mass.) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii) have been insisting that Democrat leadership not work with President Trump “at all.”
Mullin praised Senate Majority Leader John Thune for managing to get 131 nominees through the Senate.
“In 2017, we only had 55 confirmed at this same time,” he said. “Because Thune made it very clear we can do this the hard way, or the easy way … they chose the hard way, so the Senate has stayed in more consecutive days than we have in 15 years, we’ve taken more votes than we have in 35 years, and we’ve confirmed 131 people.”
The senator pointed out that of the 131 nominees confirmed by the Senate, Democrats filibustered all but one—Senator Marco Rubio.
The Democrats’ obstinate gamesmanship over the weekend the last straw for Republicans.
“We’ve put them on notice and said, ‘we’re not going to play games with you anymore. So now you’re forcing us to change Senate rules.”
Mullin said that as soon as Congress returns to Capitol Hill after the August recess, the Senate would be working on the rules change.