President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 26, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., railed against the Schumer-led logjam and charged that Senate Democrats were blocking nominees from voice votes or unanimous consent – two fast-track processes typically used to move non-controversial nominees – because of "Trump derangement syndrome."
"That's got to change," Thune said. "This is a problem the Democrats created, and we intend to fix it."
Thune teed up 48 nominees, all sub-Cabinet level positions that advanced out of committee on a bipartisan basis, for Thursday’s vote. Senate Democrats still have the option to vote on the tranche of Trump’s picks and avoid a nuclear change, but that outcome is unlikely.
Instead, Schumer offered for Republicans to again resume negotiations that were derailed last month when Trump intervened and told the Democratic leader to "GO TO HELL" over "egregious and unprecedented" demands for a deal on a nominee package.
TRUMP NOMINEES PILE UP AS GOP WEIGHS RULE SHIFT ONCE FLOATED BY DEMOCRATS
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is holding firm on his and Senate Democrats' blockade of President Donald Trump's nominees, as Senate Republicans march toward a nuclear rules change. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Democrats showed their willingness to continue the blockade throughout the week, including when Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, attempted to tee up 10 judicial nominees for unanimous consent but was promptly blocked by Schumer.
"This blanket obstruction of all nominees is a misguided attempt to score political points," Grassley said.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told Fox News Digital that Republicans haven’t shown a desire to return to the table since negotiations were blown up last month. He said that using a Democratic proposal "gives them a talking point they can lean on," but he said Senate Democrats weren’t falling for it.
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"They've decided they lost patience, and using someone else's bill as cover doesn't really do the trick," he said.
Indeed, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, offered the original Klobuchar bill on the floor Wednesday night, but the move was blocked by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., who instead offered to modify the proposal to kick in later in 2029, when Trump will be out of office.
And King, one of the original co-sponsors of the bill, told Fox News Digital that he couldn’t support his legislation coming back to benefit the Trump administration.
"No, it's a different, whole different situation than it was," King said. "I could not support anything that facilitated this president's stocking of the federal government."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-dig-gop-prepares-go-nuclear-trump-nominee-race