Trump urges GOP to ‘end the shutdown’ by going nuclear on Senate filibuster

President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Republicans to end the filibuster in order to end the month-long government shutdown.

In a late-night post on Truth Social, Trump noted that Democrats tried to eliminate the Senate procedure when they controlled both houses of Congress and the White House during the Biden administration, but then-Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – who both left the Democratic Party to become independents – helped block this effort.

Trump revived discussions on the “nuclear option” after returning from his trip to Asia this week.

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President Donald Trump called on Republicans to end the filibuster in order to end the month-long government shutdown. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“The one question that kept coming up was how the Democrats SHUT DOWN the United States of America, and why did the powerful Republicans allow them to do it?” Trump wrote. “The fact is, going back, I thought a lot about this question, WHY?

The president praised Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson for “doing a great job” but lambasted Democrats as “crazy lunatics” suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.”

“They want billions of dollars taken out of our health care system and given to others who don’t deserve it – people who entered our country illegally, many of them from prisons and mental institutions,” Trump wrote. “This will harm American citizens, and Republicans will not allow that to happen.”

Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked over how to end the shutdown, now in its fourth week, with the two sides trading blame for the impasse.

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President Donald Trump suggested Republicans use the “nuclear option” after returning to the United States from his trip to Asia. (Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump added that Republicans, who now control Congress and the White House, should play their “Trump card” and go for the “nuclear option.”

“Get rid of the filibuster, and get rid of him, NOW!” he wrote.

Trump added that Democrats “fought so hard” to end the filibuster under Biden, but failed. Now, he argued, Republicans should abolish the procedure to advance their own agenda and end the lockdown.

“[I]If we did what we should do, it would immediately end this ridiculous and destructive shutdown of the country,” Trump said.

He added that Democrats would “do it on day one” if they regained power.

Former senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema helped block Democrats’ efforts to end the filibuster during the Biden administration. (Getty Images/Reuters)

“On top of all the other things we would get, like the best judges, the best American lawyers, the best of everything, this was a concept years ago from President Barack Hussein Obama and former Majority Leader Harry Reid in order to take advantage of the Republicans. Now I want to do it to take advantage of the Democrats,” Trump added.

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The president was referring to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s 2013 decision to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for most executive and judicial nominees. The Senate, with a Democratic majority, voted 52-48 in 2013 to remove the 60-vote requirement.