🚨 BIG NEWS, Patriots! The US Senate is ADJOURNING until September after successfully voting on 13 of President Trump’s nominees! 💪 No deals with the Democrats — they tried to play their game by asking for funds to be unfrozen, but Trump stood firm and said NO!
Senate Republicans left Washington for the summer without a deal to quickly confirm dozens of nominees — but they are vowing to come back this fall and change the rules to clear the partisan logjam.
Majority Leader John Thune locked in the plan shortly after meeting with GOP senators Saturday night. It effectively pulled the plug on the confirmations standoff for now, with lawmakers saying that President Donald Trump privately told them to abandon negotiations with Democrats and head home.
The president is fed up,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who has been in close touch with Trump.
In a Truth Social message Saturday evening, Trump accused Schumer of “political extortion” for demanding the release of agency funding that the White House has held back in return for the swift confirmations.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) — who, like Mullin, has been involved in the negotiations — said there “was no deal” and that senators are going to “work through our [nominees] that we hadn’t done yet” and then leave.
The decision came after Thune and Schumer made a final round of offers late Saturday afternoon. Republicans accused Democrats of changing their negotiation demands, which Democrats refuted, while Democrats claimed Trump foiled Senate GOP leaders’ attempts to reach an agreement.
Schumer took his own swipe at Trump, saying in a news conference Saturday night that the president “threw in the towel, sent Republicans home and was unable to do the basic art of negotiating.”
He went home with nothing,” he added.
Trump held multiple calls with a key group of GOP senators on Saturday, and senior staffers for Thune were in close touch with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
“There were lots of offers being made back and forth, and there were several different times where I think both sides maybe thought there was a deal — but you’ve got to be able to close it out,” Thune said Saturday night, adding that “the asks evolved on both sides quite a bit over time.”
Shortly before senators decided to leave town, Trump not only offered the scathing critique of Schumer but also signaled to Senate Republicans that they should not accept the contours of the deal senators have been discussing — speeding up dozens of nominations in exchange for the administration unfreezing certain agency funding.
The money at the heart of the negotiations circled around foreign aid and the National Institutes of Health, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private conversations.
Democrats had also made a separate offer that would clear the way for confirmations of a second tranche of nominees later this year in exchange for Republicans agreeing not to do another rescissions package clawing back previously approved funding.
GOP senators warned they couldn’t commit to eschewing additional rescission packages, which only require a simple majority to get through both the House and Senate, and Trump made clear on social media he was not interested in the trade.
