President Donald Trump scolded Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Tuesday for upholding a tradition that is preventing Trump from appointing more judicial nominees.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said Grassley could help the GOP overcome the so-called “Blue Slip” problem with the “flick of a pen.” The term blue slip refers to a tradition where the Senate Judiciary Committee only proceeds with a nomination of both of the sitting Senators from a given state approve of the nominee.
Grassley previously defended the tradition in a 2015 op-ed for the Des Moines Register, where he argued that the tradition is “designed to encourage outstanding nominees and consensus between the White House and home-state senators.”
“The Democrats have broken this ridiculous custom on us, it’s time that we break it on them,” Trump wrote in the post. “Chuck, I know you have the Courage to do this, DO IT!”
Trump’s statement comes as Senate Republicans struggle to approve several Trump nominations. According to data from the Partnership for Public Service, there are 254 nominations currently being considered by the Senate, including several nominations for district attorneys in Democratic-controlled states.
“Put simply, the President of the United States will never be permitted to appoint the person of his choice because of an ancient, and probably Unconstitutional, ‘CUSTOM,’ that if you have, even one person in the opposite Party serving in the U.S. Senate, he/she must give consent, thereby completely stopping the opposite Party’s Nomination,” Trump wrote.