A number of prominent Senate Republicans are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s attacks on Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), telling him to “back off” his push to coerce the senator into compliance on changing a Senate tradition.
On Tuesday, Trump demanded that Grassley eliminate a Senate tradition known as the ‘blue slip,’ a tool for senators to block judicial nominees that would ultimately serve in their districts. Trump went on to reshare several posts on Truth Social labeling Grassley a “RINO,” or ‘Republican in name only,’ as well as another post suggesting Grassley “must hate America.”
Now, a number of Republican senators, among them some of Trump’s most loyal allies, are urging Trump to drop the issue.
“With respect, Mr. President, pretty please, with sugar on top, back off this, because I don’t think the Senate’s going to go along, and I think it’s just a needless fight,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), The Hill reported.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who had a falling out with Trump last month over his opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, said he believed Trump was motivated to target Grassley after receiving “bad advice” from his staff.
“I think the president’s staff have a bad habit of advising him that was a good idea,” Tillis said. “The staff should have intervened and said, ‘this is not a good idea.’”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) called Trump’s attacks “unnecessary,” and said she was a “defender of the blue slip,” and one Republican senator who spoke with The Hill on the condition of anonymity said that Trump’s comments sparked significant negative reactions among Senate Republicans.
“There’s a lot of negative reaction by me and my colleagues to the specific treatment of Sen. Grassley,” the lawmaker told The Hill. “There’s a lot of desire to see Chuck Grassley treated correctly. It was really the talk of the floor last night.”
Grassley, who has long been a staunch ally to Trump, responded to the remarks on Wednesday, saying that he was “offended” by the attacks.
Trump’s calls to eliminate the blue slip come amid a wave of judicial appointments currently being weighed by Congress, with Trump hoping to eliminate any and all tools at Congress’ disposal to block his picks for the bench. However, even Trump’s most loyal allies in the Senate aren’t rushing to his defense on this battle.
“It happens on both sides,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), speaking on the blue slip. “We were able to block some bad judges last time with a blue slip.”