OPINION:
The future has been weighing heavily on President Trump, 79, who understands he is term-limited and wants to make as significant an impact on society as possible in his last four years in office.
“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven,” Mr. Trump told the press on Air Force One last month, the second time he has made such a musing in his second term. A few weeks earlier, he commented, “I want to try to get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole.”
That’s not to say Mr. Trump hasn’t been striving to enter the pearly gates. He is working to end the Russia-Ukraine war, having resolved eight other conflicts around the world as the 47th president of the United States. He is determined to end the fentanyl scourge that has ravaged our nation by striking a deal with China to limit the precursors that country exports to Mexico and blowing up drug cartel boats in the Caribbean Sea.
However, much of what Mr. Trump has done in his second term, which this column has argued is for the betterment of America, is on shaky legal ground. Two hundred thirty-three active court cases are challenging the Trump administration’s actions, according to the blog Lawfare. These lawsuits include Mr. Trump’s forceful immigration policy and his sweeping cuts across the federal government, enacted by the Department of Government Efficiency.
So, is it any surprise Mr. Trump is in favor of nuking the Senate filibuster, the rule that requires 60 Senate votes to pass legislation instead of majority rule? The filibuster was designed to facilitate compromise in the Senate, requiring a supermajority to pass spending bills and primary legislation that can’t be rushed through the budget reconciliation rules, which allow lawmakers to sidestep the filibuster.
Mr. Trump has considered using the “nuclear option” to end the government shutdown.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” he wrote on Truth Social. Mr. Trump warned that Democrats would end the filibuster if they ever regained control of the Senate, so Republicans should go ahead and do it now.
“If we did what we should be doing, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous, Country destroying ‘SHUT DOWN,’” he wrote.
Republicans, wary that Democrats would take advantage of the rule change if they retook control of the Senate, have largely resisted Mr. Trump’s cries. Indeed, it was Republicans who stymied Democrats’ bid to rewrite election law under President Biden, using the filibuster when they were the minority party.
At the time, Democrats were advocating for abolishing the filibuster so they could advance the process of packing the Supreme Court in their favor and incorporating Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states, thereby retaining their majority in both the House and Senate. Democrats have already chipped away at parts of the filibuster, namely requiring a 50-vote majority to confirm Supreme Court justices.
Luckily, two Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, opposed the rule change, and Democrats lacked the votes to enact it. Needless to say, Ms. Sinema and Mr. Manchin were vilified by their party in their opposition and no longer hold office.
When confronted about the yo-yoing effect of the Senate if the filibuster was nixed, and Democrats’ plans to alter every branch of government in their favor if they gain the majority, Vice President J.D. Vance had a bit of a nihilistic take, arguing that the “left is already going to do it regardless of whether we do it.”
Mr. Vance, a former senator, suggested that Republicans shouldn’t be afraid to change the rules. “We cannot be afraid to do something because the left might do it in the future,” he said.
Although his statement reflects poorly on our current political culture, it does reveal the truth: Democrats have proved they will weaponize every aspect of our legal, political and bureaucratic systems once they gain control to minimize, censor and jail their ideological opposition.
That is why, ultimately, I’m not opposed to the Republicans going nuclear. However, they shouldn’t do it to end a government shutdown.
Republicans must line up a series of bills aimed at codifying all Mr. Trump’s executive actions, including his trade deals, use of tariffs, strikes on cartel boats, the ability to fire federal workers, and upholding his ban on biological men from competing in women’s sports.
Then, and only then, will the more than 200 court challenges to Mr. Trump’s agenda be declared null and void. It would also make it harder for a Democratic presidential successor to upend Mr. Trump’s executive orders. Mr. Trump’s legacy, which he is obviously concerned about, would endure beyond his last four years in office.
So, by all means, Republicans, nuke the filibuster — but only once you have a stack of laws ready to pass to blast the Democrats’ agenda back for decades, not to merely pass an extension of Biden-era spending to reopen the federal government.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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