Days before Senate Republicans pick their new leader, Donald Trump is pressuring the candidates to change the rules and empower him to appoint some nominees without a Senate vote.
Republican Senators John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida are running in a secret ballot election on Wednesday to lead the conference and replace longtime leader Mitch McConnell, who is stepping aside from the job after almost two decades.
All three have courted Mr Trump’s support in the race, vying to show who is the closest to the president-elect as they campaign to become majority leader.
Mr Trump has not endorsed in the race, but on Sunday he made clear that he expects the new leader to go around regular Senate order, if necessary, to allow him to fill his Cabinet quickly.
In a statement on X and Truth Social, Mr Trump said that the next leader “must agree” to allow him to make appointments when the chamber is on recess, bypassing a confirmation vote.
He said: “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,” Mr Trump posted, adding that positions should be filled “IMMEDIATELY!”
The Senate has not allowed presidents to make so-called recess appointments since a 2014 Supreme Court ruling limited the president’s power to do so.
Since then, the Senate has held brief “pro forma” sessions when it is out of town for more than 10 days so that a president cannot take advantage of the absence and start filling posts that have not been confirmed.
But with Mr Trump’s approval paramount in the race, all three candidates quickly suggested that they might be willing to reconsider the practice. Mr Scott replied to Mr Trump: “100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible.”
And Mr Thune said in a statement that they must “quickly and decisively” act to get nominees in place and that “all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments.”
He noted that recess appointments are allowed under the Constitution.
Mr Trump’s relationship with Congress — especially the advice and consent role afforded to the Senate when it comes to nominations — was tumultuous in his first term as he chafed at resistance to his selections and sought ways to work around lawmakers.
With Mr Trump now entering a second term emboldened by his sweeping election victory, he is already signalling that he expects Senate Republicans, and by extension, their new leader, to fall in line behind his Cabinet selections.
Mr Trump also posted on Sunday that the Senate should not approve any judges in the weeks before Republicans take power next year — a more difficult demand to fulfil as Democrats will control the floor, and hold the majority of votes until the new Congress is sworn in on January 3.
With days to go, the race for Senate Republican leader is deeply in flux. Mr Thune and Mr Cornyn are both well-liked, longtime senators who have served as deputies to Mr McConnell and have been seen as the front-runners, despite past statements criticising Mr Trump.
Mr Scott — a longtime friend of Mr Trump’s and fierce ally — has been seen as more of a longshot, but he has mounted an aggressive campaign in recent days on social media and elsewhere with the aim of getting Mr Trump’s endorsement.
Senators who are close to Trump, such as Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida, have endorsed Mr Scott, as have tech mogul Elon Musk and other people who have Mr Trump’s ear.
All three candidates are promising that they will be more open and transparent than Mr McConnell was and that they would give senators more power to get their priorities to the floor.
They have also tried to make clear that they would have a much different relationship with Mr Trump than Mr McConnell, who once called the former president a “despicable human being” behind closed doors.
As the Senate haggles over how to fill Mr Trump’s Cabinet, many of his allies are campaigning for the nominations. Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said on ABC’s This Week that there are “a couple of great options on the table”.
Senator Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee who served as US ambassador to Japan between 2017 and 2019, said on CBS’s Face the Nation that one of his greatest honours was to represent the Trump administration overseas.
He said he would advance “the positions that President Trump has articulated”.
While Mr Trump has made only one personnel move public so far, naming Susie Wiles his chief of staff, he has already ruled out two names for top positions.
Mr Trump said on Saturday that he would not be inviting Mike Pompeo, his former US Secretary of State and CIA chief, and Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as his UN ambassador and challenged him for the Republican nomination.
