Trump just revealed his shocking plan for Democrats to ‘most likely never attain power’ again
Trump just revealed his shocking plan for Democrats to ‘most likely never attain power’ again
President Donald Trump is going all out on eliminating the Senate filibuster after Democrats clinched sweeping victories in closely watched races on Election Night.
In his first public comments Wednesday, Trump once again called on Republicans to terminate the filibuster — after urging the GOP last week to use the “nuclear option” to reopen the government amid an ongoing partisan standoff. The repeated plea came as the president asked his party in an all-caps Truth Social post to scrap the measure and “GET BACK TO PASSING LEGISLATION AND VOTER REFORM,” right after races were called for Democrats in New Jersey, New York City and Virginia.
The Senate filibuster — which requires a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to be brought to the floor and to advance — has been debated in recent years among both sides of the political aisle in a time of heightened partisanship. The GOP’s stopgap bill, which passed the House in September, has failed 14 times to reach that threshold in the Senate, as Democrats have remained united around a separate bill centered on extending expiring Obamacare subsidies.
While addressing GOP senators over breakfast, Trump strongly encouraged Republicans to move forward on his demand, saying that Democrats would do the same if they regain control of Congress. He warned that the Democratic Party would give statehood to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., as well as “pack” the Supreme Court, in what he described as an attempt to turn power in its favor.
“Now, if we do what I’m saying, they’ll never — they’ll most likely never attain power,” Trump said. “Because we will have passed every single thing that you can imagine that is good, and all good for the country.”
At one point, he also likened Democrats to “kamikaze pilots.”
“I just got back from Japan, I talked about the kamikaze pilots,” he said. ”I think these guys are kamikaze. They’ll take down the country if they have to.”
Earlier in his remarks, Trump acknowledged that the election results were not “good” for the GOP, going on to say that the government shutdown — which just became the longest in U.S. history — was a “bigger factor, negative, for the Republicans,” as he pointed to unnamed pollsters.
“And they say that I wasn’t on the ballot was the biggest factor,” Trump said. “I don’t know about that, but I was honored that they said that.”
Trump’s proposal, however, has faced headwinds from GOP leadership. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) batted down the president’s plea earlier this week, telling reporters that “The votes aren’t there.” Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) suggested that the termination could ultimately give more power to the Democrats.
“I understand desperate times call for desperate measures,” Johnson told reporters on Monday. “I also understand that traditionally, we’ve seen that as an important safeguard.”
Johnson continued: “As much as I have wanted to blow up the filibuster sometimes as a House member when we were not getting what we wanted done in our agenda, I hear my Senate Republican colleagues, some of the most conservative people in Congress, who say it’s an important safeguard.”
Trump also called for the elimination of the filibuster to pass his agenda during his first term.
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