Senate departs Washington for summer as Trump gives up on confirming 150 nominees

President Trump abandoned his push for the Senate to work through August to confirm more than 150 of his judicial and executive nominees who have cleared committee and are awaiting a floor vote.

With Mr. Trump’s blessing to “go home,” the Senate adjourned late Saturday after confirming 10 nominees in a brief one-day overtime of the chamber’s scheduled session.

Senators were close to a deal on fast-tracking confirmation of other nominees, but the president didn’t like Democrats’ demands to release more than $1 billion in frozen spending.

He likened it to “political extortion” and told Republicans, “Do not accept the offer.”

“Go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country,” Mr. Trump posted on social media. “Have a great recess and, Make America Great Again!!!”

The Senate’s annual August recess allows lawmakers to hold events in their home states and meet with constituents, participate in congressional delegation trips to meet with officials in foreign countries, and vacation with their families.

Republicans vow to make up for their time away when they return in September by changing Senate rules to speed up the confirmation of the president’s remaining nominees.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma Republican, said that was “the only option” after Democrats refused to make a deal without the release of more than $1 billion for their “special pet programs.”

“Finally, President Trump said, ‘Go pound sand. Forget it. Senate. Go home. Let’s regroup. When we come back, we’re going to change the rules,’” Mr. Mullin said in a video posted to social media.

Later, in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Mr. Mullin said Democrats’ demands included unfreezing funding for National Institutes of Health grants to liberal universities and foreign aid to the Gaza Strip.

“Keep in mind, Hamas hasn’t released the hostages, but yet they’re wanting to send more money to Gaza,” he said.

Mr. Mullin said Democrats continued to increase their price from $800 million to $1.3 billion while reducing the number of nominees they were willing to confirm by voice vote or unanimous consent.

Mr. Trump said Senate Democrats and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York offered to confirm “a small number” of his nominees for the “egregious and unprecedented” price of more than $1 billion.

“Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to go to hell!” he said in his social media post, which turned into yelling, all-capital letters at the end.

Mr. Schumer declined to provide details but said he was “painfully close on a fair deal” with Republicans before Mr. Trump called it off.

“Many of the Republicans told me they’re totally confused,” he said. “But they all know one thing: Donald Trump needed to get his way.”

Instead of compromising, the president “attempted to steamroll the Senate to put in place his historically unqualified nominees,” Mr. Schumer said.

“Donald Trump tried to bully us, go around us, threaten us, call us names, but he got nothing, and he walked away with his tail between his legs,” he said. “One of these days, Trump is going to have to learn that he needs to work with Democrats to help the American people.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said that even though the requests on both sides had evolved Saturday, they “maybe thought there was a deal.”

“But in the end, you know, we never got to a place where we had both sides agreed to lock it in,” Mr. Thune said.

The Senate confirmed 10 of Mr. Trump’s nominees Saturday before adjourning, including former Fox News Channel host Jeanine Pirro, to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Two days earlier, Mr. Trump suggested that the Senate remain in session until it confirmed more than 150 nominees who had cleared the committee and were awaiting a floor vote.

When the Senate returns on Sept. 2, its first action will be a procedural vote on the annual defense authorization bill.

However, the chamber must also deal with the remaining nominations backlog and fund the government before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

Republicans are considering the “nuclear option” to circumvent Democrats and change Senate rules to speed up the confirmation process.

Options include reducing the debate time for each nominee or allowing batches of nominations to be voted en bloc.

“I’m committed to anything we could do to get it done, including breaking the Democrats on this,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, Missouri Republican, “because this has never happened in the history of the country.”

He was referring to Democrats’ refusal to allow any of Mr. Trump’s second-term nominees, except for military promotions, to be quickly confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent.

“The nominees that we have right now are, by and large, unqualified, so I’m not going to voice-vote them,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat. “We have a responsibility to cast votes and to be accountable on the record.”

Mr. Schumer said changing the rules would be a “huge mistake.”

“We should be working together on legislation to get things done for the American people,” he said.

Mr. Schumer said the Senate has shown it can work in a bipartisan manner. He pointed to the passage Friday of three of the 12 fiscal 2026 spending bills.

Those measures, which provide funding for the legislative branch and the Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments, require further negotiation with the House, which has different versions of the spending bills.

Reaching a bipartisan, bicameral deal on all 12 bills will not be easy. Congress must pass the bills, or stopgap versions, to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1.

Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to strike a deal with Democrats on nominations, given their funding demands, suggests he could play hardball on the spending bills as well.

Mr. Schumer said Republicans in Congress must decide whether to find common ground with Democrats or “continue to go at it alone, following Donald Trump down a dangerous path that hurts their party and hurts the American people.”