President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday involved himself publicly in the Senate leadership race for the first time, writing in a post on TruthSocial that anyone running to be the next Senate Majority Leader should agree to let Trump make recess appointments to his cabinet.
“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Trump wrote, adding, “Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!”
One of the demands he outlined in the post is the ability to make recess appointments, which is not currently in practice and would allow the president to appoint people to senior administration positions and bypass Senate confirmation.
Currently, both chambers of Congress enter “pro forma” sessions, even when the House and Senate are out of town, as a tactic to block the president from bypassing confirmation votes.
The Supreme Court
rebuked
former
President Barack Obama
when he
made recess appointments, ruling 9-0 that they were made during a three-day break and recesses are technically longer than that. That ruling gave the Senate more power to thwart these kinds of appointments in the future.
In 2020, during the throes of the Covid pandemic, Trump
threatened to unilaterally adjourn Congress
so that he could make recess appointments, but the threat never materialized.
Trump’s post on Sunday marks his first time weighing into the race to replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Republicans’ de facto leader in the upper chamber.
GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Rick Scott of Florida and John Thune of South Dakota, who currently serves as Senate Minority Whip, are running to replace him.
Scott on Sunday quickly weighed in on the issue, writing in a post on X that he agrees with Trump on recess appointments.
“100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible,” Scott
wrote
.
Thune argued the practice of recess appointments was an attempt to violate the separation of powers.
“When the president couldn’t get his appointments through the Senate, he decided to ignore the law and attempt an end run around Congress,” he said in a statement. “I am pleased that the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the president’s attempt to circumvent the Constitution. Today’s decision reaffirms the fact that Congress, not the president, has the authority to determine its own rules.”
A representative for Cornyn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The race to succeed McConnell has heated up since Election Day, with rank-and-file GOP senators publicly endorsing their preferred picks.
Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Marco Rubio of Florida and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee have all endorsed Scott.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has endorsed Cornyn.
On Thursday, though, Thune urged Trump not to endorse in the race, telling CNBC in an interview, “Obviously, if he wants to, he could exert a considerable amount of influence on that, but honestly, I think my preference would be, and I think it’s probably in his best interest to stay out of that.”
Scott spoke to Trump in May, telling him that he would run to succeed McConnell and asking for his endorsement, a source familiar with the call
told NBC News
.
Cornyn, Scott and Thune will meet Tuesday evening for a candidate forum organized by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. On Wednesday morning, just hours before Trump meets with President Biden at the White House, senators will vote for a new majority leader by secret ballot.
In the second part of his Truth Social post on Sunday, the president-elect called on Democrats not to confirm any additional judicial nominees between now and the start of the next Congressional session.
“Additionally, no Judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. THANK YOU!,” Trump wrote, suggesting Republicans should stop Democrats from confirming judges during the lame duck session.
This would only work if Republicans slow-walk the process. They cannot unilaterally stop Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is still the Majority Leader of the Senate, from putting nominees on the floor.
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