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Congressional Memo
President Trump is showing mounting frustration at his inability to win confirmation of U.S. attorneys in blue states or break the filibuster's grip on the Senate. The G.O.P. has been uncharacteristically uncooperative.
Nov. 4, 2025, 10:10 a.m. ET
Republicans in Congress have been remarkably compliant this year as President Trump has usurped their constitutional pre-eminence on fundamental matters such as spending, tariffs and war powers. But in two areas, G.O.P. senators have put up firm resistance that is increasingly frustrating the president.
When it comes to preserving the legislative filibuster and controlling the confirmation of U.S. attorneys, Republicans are so far holding their ground in the face of intensifying White House pressure to jettison Senate practices that the president sees as holding him back. In both cases, the rules empower senators on a personal and political level in a way that they are reluctant to surrender — even to a demanding president whom they rarely challenge.
It has not discouraged Mr. Trump from trying, as the government shutdown drags into a sixth, record-breaking week and Democrats continue to block a bill to reopen. In a social media post on Tuesday, the president again called for his party to gut the filibuster, the tactic that allows a single senator to block final action on any major legislation unless 60 votes can be found to move forward.
“If we do terminate the Filibuster, we will get EVERYTHING approved, like no Congress in History,” Mr. Trump wrote.
A chief fear of wary Republicans is that if they were to jettison the filibuster, Democrats would likewise be able to get everything they wanted approved when they returned to power. Republicans don’t seem ready to cave just yet to Mr. Trump, whom they see as shortsighted when it comes to the filibuster.
“There just simply aren’t the votes to get rid of the Senate’s 60-vote threshold,” Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said on Monday on Fox News Radio. He said that neutering the filibuster would ultimately make Republicans responsible for legislation Democrats would push through.
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In reality, the filibuster also serves Republicans as a handy check on a president who sometimes takes stances that carry substantial risk or defy party orthodoxy, an excuse for Senate Republicans to avoid doing things they don’t see as sound policy or politics without infuriating Mr. Trump. Eliminating the filibuster would also be a huge blow to the prestige and credibility of Mr. Thune, who has pledged to preserve it.
The ability to filibuster also amplifies the influence of each senator, allowing any one member of the body to threaten to slow or block legislation if his or her demands aren’t met, a regular Senate ritual.
The fight over federal prosecutors gets much less attention than the fate of the famed filibuster, but it is clearly vexing Mr. Trump and presenting real complications for the White House as it seeks to pursue criminal charges against high-profile targets.
“You know, I have 10 U.S. attorneys who are phenomenal, phenomenal — a Harvard or Yale, a this, a that — all top,” Mr. Trump said during last month’s White House luncheon with Senate Republicans as he went on an extended rant about the prosecutorial blockage. “And the problem is they’re not going to ever be confirmed, I guess. I put them in, they’ll be there for three or four months, whatever it is, and then they have to leave.”
The cause of his anger is the Senate “blue slip” tradition, which gives home-state senators virtual veto power over whether certain justice-related nominees can advance, forcing the White House to seek their consent. While its influence has been diluted on appeals court judges, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has kept the practice in place for district court judges, federal prosecutors and U.S. marshals — personnel matters where senators like to play a role. Those posts remain patronage positions to some degree, and senators are reluctant to give up their considerable sway in influencing who receives them.
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As a result, the White House is having a difficult time winning confirmation of prosecutors in states represented by Democratic senators, including New Jersey, Nevada, California, New Mexico and Virginia. Those also happen to be the very states where Mr. Trump and his acolytes at the Justice Department would like to install aggressive prosecutors to pursue what they portray as wrongdoing under Democratic rule.
Lacking Democratic consent on its choices, the administration can only legally install prosecutors in a temporary capacity for 120 days — the “three or four months” Mr. Trump mentioned. But the post must then be vacated and filled by a selection by district court judges if no nominee can be confirmed.
The issue looms particularly large in Virginia, where Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. attorney appointed by Mr. Trump, is prosecuting James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and the New York attorney general, Letitia James.
The administration originally struck a deal with the state’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, to install Erik Siebert as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. But Mr. Siebert ran into trouble when he questioned the strength of the cases against Mr. Comey and Ms. James, two people perceived by Mr. Trump as political enemies.
Mr. Siebert resigned, but Mr. Trump then said he wanted Mr. Siebert fired because he had received Democratic support — even though he could not get a federal prosecutor confirmed in Virginia or any state with a Democratic senator without their backing. Instead, he installed Ms. Halligan, one of his personal lawyers, as the top prosecutor in Northern Virginia. The legitimacy of her appointment is now under scrutiny, threatening the cases against Mr. Comey and Ms. James.
On Monday, the administration sought to bolster Ms. Halligan’s standing by saying that she had also been appointed as a “special attorney” by the Justice Department, with the authority to prosecute the case even if her appointment as the U.S. attorney is deemed flawed.
The furor over the prosecutors dates back to the administration of President George W. Bush. As part of the antiterrorism laws put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress granted the administration authority to put U.S. attorneys in place indefinitely until confirmation. But when the Bush administration began replacing prosecutors and sidestepping the Senate, lawmakers rebelled and put the 120-day limit in place.
Republican senators say they understand Mr. Trump’s unhappiness, but don’t expect any move to undermine the blue slip.
“He’s rightfully frustrated, but we are not going to change the blue slip,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the former chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “I fought to keep the blue slip to have our people have a say about who the U.S. attorney is in their state. It’s been a long tradition in the Senate.”
There is a move to help Mr. Trump another way. Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, has introduced legislation to give Mr. Trump the power to again name prosecutors indefinitely while awaiting confirmation. But the legislation has no chance in the Senate with Democrats opposed and the filibuster in place. It is precisely the sort of measure that Republicans are all too happy to see stalled by a procedural blockade without having to oppose it themselves.
Carl Hulse is the chief Washington correspondent for The Times, primarily writing about Congress and national political races and issues. He has nearly four decades of experience reporting in the nation’s capital.
