Republican Leaders Reject Trump’s Pressure to End Senate Filibuster/ Newslooks/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ Republican leaders are firmly rejecting President Donald Trump’s demand to eliminate the Senate filibuster amid a prolonged government shutdown. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and others argue the 60-vote rule protects long-term legislative balance. Trump’s comments arrive just as GOP senators were nearing a bipartisan reopening deal.
Filibuster Debate – Quick Looks
- Trump urges Senate Republicans to use the “nuclear option” and eliminate the 60-vote filibuster rule.
- Senate GOP leaders, including John Thune and John Barrasso, oppose the idea, citing institutional integrity.
- Speaker Mike Johnson echoes caution, calling the filibuster a Senate issue and a “safeguard.”
- Trump’s comments come amid a 31-day government shutdown, frustrating lawmakers seeking a resolution.
- GOP senators say they lack the votes to end the filibuster, with many reaffirming support for the rule.
- Republican Senators Curtis, Tillis, and others openly reject eliminating the filibuster regardless of pressure.
- Trump’s call threatens fragile bipartisan talks to reopen the government by next week.
- McConnell’s past refusal to eliminate the filibuster resurfaces as a key reference point.
Republican Leaders Reject Trump’s Pressure to End Senate Filibuster
Deep Look
Amid an escalating 31-day government shutdown, President Donald Trump has reignited calls for Senate Republicans to eliminate the legislative filibuster — but GOP leadership and a broad swath of senators are pushing back swiftly and firmly.
Trump’s demand, delivered in all-caps Truth Social posts, urges Republican senators to invoke the so-called “nuclear option,” scrapping the Senate’s 60-vote requirement to pass most legislation. Doing so, he claims, would enable Republicans to unilaterally reopen the government and advance conservative priorities without Democratic support.
However, Senate Republican leaders quickly distanced themselves from the suggestion. Majority Leader John Thune has consistently defended the filibuster, calling it essential to the Senate’s identity and to preserving legislative balance, particularly for conservatives.
“The 60-vote threshold has protected this country,” Thune said earlier in the shutdown. His spokesperson reaffirmed that “Leader Thune’s position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged.”
Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chamber’s second-ranking Republican, also maintained his support for the filibuster, according to his office.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, while not a Senate leader, also struck a cautious tone. He labeled the filibuster a Senate matter but underscored its role as a traditional safeguard. “If the shoe was on the other foot, I don’t think our team would like it,” Johnson remarked, noting that eroding the rule could backfire should Democrats regain control.
Trump Upsets Delicate Bipartisan Talks
Trump’s demand arrived at a precarious moment. Senate Republicans had believed they were closing in on a bipartisan solution that could end the shutdown by next week. A cross-party group of senators planned to continue negotiations through the weekend. The sudden reintroduction of filibuster elimination into the discourse risks fracturing that momentum.
“BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE GONE STONE COLD ‘CRAZY,’ THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote.
He added that Democrats would eliminate the filibuster the moment they regained power, and Republicans should act first to lock in policy gains.
But inside the GOP Senate conference, support for this maneuver is virtually nonexistent. According to four anonymous GOP sources, the party lacks the 50 votes needed to eliminate the filibuster, even with Vice President JD Vance casting a potential tiebreak.
Public GOP Opposition Mounts
Senator John Curtis (R-Utah) was among the first to publicly reject the proposal. “The filibuster forces us to find common ground in the Senate. Power changes hands, but principles shouldn’t. I’m a firm no on eliminating it,” he wrote on X.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), through a spokesperson, reaffirmed that he “would never vote to eliminate the legislative filibuster under any circumstance.”
Even GOP senators aligned with Trump — like John Cornyn (R-Texas), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.) — have previously indicated their opposition to ending the filibuster.
And then there’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who served as majority leader during Trump’s first term. He consistently rejected Trump’s calls to scrap the rule and even addressed it in a recent biography:
“Trump asked me to go nuclear and I had a one-word answer: ‘No.’”
House Hard-Liners Push From the Sidelines
In the House, some conservatives have shown more enthusiasm for radical procedural changes. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) reportedly pressed Speaker Johnson during a Republican conference call to push Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster so they could pass the House-approved stopgap bill.
Despite those pressures, Johnson’s reluctance on Friday signaled broader party hesitancy. He suggested Trump’s comments reflected growing frustration with the record-setting shutdown.
“What you’re seeing is an expression of the president’s anger at the situation,” Johnson said. “He is as angry as I am and the American people are about this madness, and he just desperately wants the government to be reopened.”
A Divisive Option With Long-Term Risks
Although some House Republicans appear tempted to push Senate rules to their limits, the Senate GOP’s response has been consistent: the filibuster stays. Their concerns extend beyond the current shutdown. Ending the 60-vote threshold could erode the very mechanisms that force compromise and could come back to haunt them if Democrats return to power.
The debate once again reveals the tension between Trump’s confrontational, results-driven approach and the Senate’s more procedural, rules-based culture. With the shutdown on the verge of breaking historic length records, Republicans now face a dual challenge: ending the impasse while managing internal friction over how far to go.
For now, the legislative filibuster — and the tradition of bipartisan cooperation it represents — appears secure, even as frustrations on all sides continue to rise.
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