President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa in the Oval Office of the White House on July 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., charged that Democrats’ blockade of Trump’s nominations was "Trump derangement syndrome on steroids."
"If we're going to do something, we're going to look at how we would make a modification to our rules to ensure that we can't have the kind of delay and obstruction and blocking that the Democrats are currently using," Thune said.
Changing the rules, however, could open the door for Democrats to take advantage of the modifications and set a new precedent for the confirmation process.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Fox News Digital that Senate Democrats were just playing by the same rules that Republicans operated under when they had the majority.
KEY TRUMP NOMINEES STALLED BY SENATE DEMS PUTS PRESSURE ON GOP LEADERS
Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard Durbin, D-Ill., talks with reporters outside a Senate Judiciary Committee markup on Nov. 14, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Some Republicans, like Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., are not too concerned about changing the precedent in the Senate, given that over the last several years the nomination process has deteriorated into a partisan stand-off.
"I'm happy to change the precedent to allow any president, Republican or Democrat, to be able to staff his administration," Johnson told Fox News Digital. "I think the confirmation system is completely out of control. I can't imagine our Founding Fathers really thought the Senate ought to be able to advise consent on hundreds and hundreds of positions. It's ridiculous."
Meanwhile, Trump targeted Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, for not doing away with "blue slips," a longtime Senate practice that effectively gives senators the ability to veto district court and U.S. attorney nominees in their home states.
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Grassley said that he was "offended" by Trump’s attack, but didn’t appear to budge on the blue slip issue. However, Grassley did ignore blue slips in 2017 to hold hearings for a pair of the president’s judicial nominees during his first term.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital that he didn’t know why Republicans wouldn’t want to have normal scrutiny and debate over their nominees.
"Trump says jump and Senate Republicans ask how high, which is really sad for an institution with such a great sense of tradition and self-respect," he said.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-gop-eyes-rules-revolt-dems-stonewall-trump-nominees