Back from a week abroad, President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to scrap the filibuster and reopen the government after a month-long shutdown, breaking with majority Republicans who have long opposed such a move. Trump said in a post on his social media site Thursday that “THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — ‘INITIATE THE NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER.”
Trump’s sudden decision to assert himself into the shutdown debate — bringing the highly charged demand to end the filibuster — is certain to set the Senate on edge. It could spur senators toward their own compromise or send the chamber spiralling toward a new sense of crisis. Trump has long called for Republicans to get rid of the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to overcome objections, dating all the way back to his first term in office.
The rule gives Democrats a check on the 53-seat Republican majority and enough votes to keep the government closed while they demand an extension of health care subsidies. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and most members of his Republican conference have strongly opposed changing the filibuster, arguing that it is vital to the institution of the Senate and has allowed them to halt Democratic policies when they are in the minority.
Thune has repeatedly said he is not considering changing the rules to end the shutdown, and there would not be enough votes to do so, for now, even if he tried. “The filibuster forces us to find common ground in the Senate,” Republican Sen John Curtis of Utah posted on X Friday morning.
