Lindsey McPherson | August 1, 2025
(The Washington Times) — President Trump wants the Senate to stay in session until it clears a backlog of more than 150 judicial and executive-branch nominees.
The Senate was scheduled to begin its annual summer recess at the end of this week, but Republican leaders had already warned the break would likely be delayed as they work to confirm more of Mr. Trump’s nominees for posts in the administration and on federal courts.
“The Senate must stay in Session, taking no recess, until the entire Executive Calendar is CLEAR!!!” Mr. Trump posted on social media late Thursday.
The executive calendar features more than 150 nominees that have been reported out of committee and are awaiting a floor vote.
Democrats have made the Senate run through procedural hurdles on every single Trump nominee, except for some military promotions. Zero civilian nominees have been confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent during Mr. Trump’s second term, which Republicans have panned as unprecedented obstruction.
President Biden had 46 civilian nominees confirmed via voice vote by July 29, 2021, and Mr. Trump had five confirmed via voice vote by that date during his first term. In the first Obama and George W. Bush administrations, the late July numbers were closer to 200.
“We have to save our Country from the Lunatic Left. Republicans, for the health and safety of the USA, do your job, and confirm All Nominees,” Mr. Trump said. “They should not be forced to wait.”
Republican leaders have been trying to negotiate a deal with Democrats to speed up confirmation of some of the nominees. But the potential fast-track agreement is expected to be limited to a much smaller universe of around two dozen nominees that had bipartisan support coming out of committee.
On Thursday, the Senate confirmed five nominees running through all required hurdles. If they were to work that at that pace for all the nominees on the executive calendar, the Senate would have to give up its entire August recess.
Some Republicans have said they’re prepared to do that.
“I agree with President Trump,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming Republican, posted on social media. “The Senate should stay as long as needed to get these qualified nominees confirmed. Let’s get it done!”
However, Senate Republicans have also been mulling alternatives to speed up confirmations.
One option is to change the Senate rules to cut down the amount of debate time or to allow groups of nominees to be voted on en bloc. They could use the “nuclear option” to change the rules without Democrats’ help.
Another option is allowing Mr. Trump to bypass the Senate and make recess appointments, which would require Congress to pass a concurrent resolution allowing the chambers to adjourn for more than three days. The Supreme Court has said Congress must adjourn for at least 10 days for a president to make recess appointments.
The House left Washington for its summer break without voting on an adjournment resolution, so the chamber would have to come back into session if the Senate were to pursue this option.
Mr. Trump notably has floated recess appointments in the past but he didn’t mention that in his Thursday night post.
In another post shortly after his push to get his nominees confirmed, Mr. Trump took a swing at one of the Republican senators who sometimes votes against his desires, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
“Republicans, when in doubt, vote the exact opposite of Senator Susan Collins,” he said. “Generally speaking, you can’t go wrong.”
It was not immediately clear whether the post had anything to do with nominations as Ms. Collins has voted with the GOP on most of Mr. Trump’s nominees.
She did vote this week against confirming Emil Bove to a seat on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Mr. Bove, who previously worked as a defense attorney for Mr. Trump, drew complaints from three whistleblowers.
The complaints said he urged the Trump administration to ignore judges who ruled against his deportation agenda and that he misled Congress over the circumstances under which he dismissed criminal charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.
Ms. Collins also voted against Mr. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and his $9 billion rescissions package.
She chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and is currently leading an effort to pass a package of spending bills on the floor, some of which include more funding than Mr. Trump requested in his budget proposal.
