Donald Trump is back to threatening his own party — this time over the Senate’s 60-vote rule — and he’s doing it in the middle of the most extended government shutdown in U.S. history. In a predawn Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump told Republican senators to “terminate the filibuster” or risk becoming “the stupid party,” insisting that Democrats would kill the rule “the first chance they get.” His demand wasn’t subtle: “Be the Smart Party, Not the Stupid Party!” he wrote.
Strip away the caps-lock bravado and you get the real play: Trump wants to erase the one Senate rule that still forces a sliver of bipartisanship and would let him ram through a purely partisan funding bill that leaves millions of Americans exposed on health care. Republicans hold just 53 seats — not enough to clear the 60-vote threshold the filibuster requires — so without Democratic votes, the government stays closed. That’s why he’s now screaming for the “nuclear option.” (Al Jazeera)
What’s at stake? Money to keep the government open — and, crucially, an extension of Obamacare subsidies Democrats say is non-negotiable. Those subsidies are what make marketplace plans affordable. Let them expire, and you’re looking at as many as 4 million people losing coverage and big premium spikes for others. For working-class families already struggling with the shutdown’s effects — including delayed paychecks, frozen federal services, and food benefits at risk — killing the subsidy extension would be a double blow. That’s the context Trump is trying to bulldoze with a rules change. (CBS News)
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Trump’s argument is actually backwards. He says Republicans should kill the filibuster because Democrats “will do it” anyway. But Democrats, when they’ve talked about narrowing it, have done so to expand voting rights or restore abortion protections — broadly popular, majoritarian policies. Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, backed ending the filibuster to codify abortion rights after Roe was overturned. That’s not the same as scrapping it to slash health coverage and fast-track culture-war bills. (Reuters)
And Trump tipped his hand: without the filibuster, a simple GOP majority could push through not just a bare-bones spending bill, but the rest of his wish list — more tax cuts tilted to the wealthy, and even the kind of anti-trans legislation he’s flirted with publicly. That’s why some Republicans — Murkowski, Cornyn, Lankford, and others — are balking; they know the rule protects them the next time Democrats have 51 votes. “Power changes hands,” as one senator put it last week. (Politico)
The broader issue here is governance through hostage-taking. This shutdown — now past 40 days — didn’t happen because Democrats walked away from governing; it happened because Republicans tried to force through a funding bill without the health-care piece, and Democrats said no. That is precisely what the filibuster is supposed to do in these moments: make the majority negotiate. Trump’s answer is not “negotiate better,” it’s “blow up the rule.” That’s not smart — it’s short-term, anti-democratic, and guarantees that when Democrats run the table again, they’ll remember what Republicans did. (Reuters)
If Trump got his way, the shutdown might end faster — but at the cost of millions losing subsidized care and at the expense of the Senate becoming just another House, with winner-take-all elections, whiplash every two years, and rights and benefits swinging wildly with each election. That’s why this fight matters beyond the day-to-day drama. This isn’t just about a cranky Sunday-morning post; it’s about whether one man’s impatience gets to rewrite a rule that for decades has forced at least some cooperation. On that, Senate Republicans — for once — should ignore him.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
