President Donald Trump called Thursday for Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster to end the month-long government shutdown.
It was time for Republicans to invoke what he called the “nuclear option” to reopen the government, the president said. Trump made his demand in a Truth Social post after returning from a trip to Asia.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” Trump wrote.
The filibuster is a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, giving Democrats the power to block Republican bills.
Senate Democrats have used the filibuster to block a House-passed continuing resolution 13 times since the government shutdown began October 1.
“The one question that kept coming up, however, was how did the Democrats SHUT DOWN the United States of America, and why did the powerful Republicans allow them to do it? The fact is, in flying back, I thought a great deal about that question, WHY?” Trump wrote.
The president said Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson are doing a “GREAT job” but called Democrats “Crazed Lunatics that have lost all sense of WISDOM and REALITY.”
“It is a sick form of the now ‘legendary’ Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) that only comes from losing too much,” Trump wrote.
The president pointed out that Democrats tried to eliminate the filibuster when they controlled Congress and the White House during the Biden administration.
Former Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema blocked that effort. Both have since left the Democratic Party to become independents. Trump said that Republicans must eliminate the filibuster now, because Democrats will do it when they return to power.
“Now WE are in power, and if we did what we should be doing, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous, Country destroying ‘SHUT DOWN,'” Trump wrote. “If the Republicans are not using the Great Strength and Policies made available to us by ending the Filibuster, the Democrats will exercise their rights, and it will be done in the first day they take office, regardless of whether or not we do it.”
Not everyone in the Republican Party is on board. Senate Majority Leader John Thune ruled out eliminating the filibuster earlier this month.
Thune called the filibuster “something that’s been a bulwark against a lot of really bad things happening with the country.” Thune said at the time he had gotten no pressure from the White House to end the filibuster.
Senator John Curtis of Utah posted Friday morning that he remained a “firm no” on eliminating the filibuster.
“The filibuster forces us to find common ground in the Senate. Power changes hands, but principles shouldn’t,” Curtis wrote.
The government shutdown is now in its 30th day, making it the second-longest shutdown in United States history. The longest shutdown lasted 35 days from December 2018 to January 2019 during Trump’s first term over his efforts to build a border wall, which has since helped to finally secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump made a similar call to eliminate the filibuster during his first term, though Senate Republicans never acted on it at the time.