President Donald Trump is pressing Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to keep the Senate in session through August recess to process presidential appointments, ostensibly making Democrats’ pay for their continued “delay and obstruction” of the president’s agenda.
There are 135 presidential appointments sitting stuck in Democrat-forced gridlock in the Senate, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has picked up the Trump torch in pressing Thune to cancel senators’ vacation, saying the “delay and obstruction” allows former President Joe Biden’s “deep state running our federal agencies in Washington” outside of the president’s bidding.
“Very important,” Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social, sharing a screenshot of Lee’s X post, “Republicans must play to win. Clear the 135. So badly needed!”
Lee noted Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are reportedly going to conduct periodic “pro forma sessions” where a skeleton crew gavels in action with scant representation once a week during recess to keep Trump from filling out his Cabinet and appointments via “recess appointments.”
“The Senate shouldn’t recess before clearing the 135-nominee confirmation backlog,” Lee wrote in the X post shared by Trump. “If the Senate recesses anyway, it should *actually* recess — NO PRO FORMA SESSIONS, as their only purpose is to prevent Trump from making recess appointments.
“The Senate can’t have it both ways.”
After Trump’s sharing of Lee’s messaging, Lee responded in kind.
“President Trump is right,” Lee wrote on X. “Clear the 135!”
Lee added a call to action for Americans to press their senators, too.
“Tell your senators: #ClearThe135,” he wrote in another X post.
These posts come just one week after Trump’s first pressing of Thune to cancel the Senate’s August recess.
“Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last Saturday. “We need them badly!!! DJT”
Lee picked of that flag waving in a late-night video and X post earlier this week:
“Tell your senators to either
(1) stay & get the job done, confirming the 135 Trump nominees pending in the Senate, or
(2) recess & let President Trump make recess appointments, as authorized by the Constitution
“The obstruction & the Deep State™? rule it produces must end now.”
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