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President Donald Trump is escalating his feud with Senate Republicans over the record-tying government shutdown, demanding they scrap the filibuster to end it and threatening political “hell” for anyone who resists.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump once again urged GOP senators to nuke the 60-vote threshold that has defined the chamber for decades. The rule is starting to frustrate Trump, who sees it as an obstacle to his agenda—and to reopening the government.
A message reads, “Families are going hungry,” from the National Women's Law Center after Trump’s announcement regarding the end of SNAP benefits on Nov. 3.White House advisers told Axios that Trump is preparing to personally pressure holdouts, warning that senators who don’t back his plan will face relentless public attacks.
“He will call them at three o’clock in the morning. He will blow them up in their districts,” one aide said. “He will call them un-American. He will call them old creatures of a dying institution. Believe you me, he’s going to make their lives just hell.”
But most Republican senators aren’t biting. The filibuster has long served as a shield for whichever party is in the minority, and leaders in both parties have treated it as untouchable. But Trump’s sudden obsession with scrapping it is the clearest sign yet that the shutdown is starting to sting politically.
Polls show voters broadly blame Trump and the GOP for the impasse, though Democrats have drawn increasing criticism as the standoff drags on. Still, most Americans are aware that Republicans control all three branches of government and have the power to reopen the government.
Trump’s call to end the filibuster comes as some GOP lawmakers privately urge a deal with Democrats to end the shutdown. But the president’s latest outburst suggests that he’s not interested in compromise—only domination.
“The more he thinks about it, the more he thinks the filibuster [is] outrageous and anti-democratic,” one adviser told Axios.
The Senate’s procedural rule, which requires a supermajority to move most bills forward, has been the target of repeated frustration from both parties. Democrats considered ending it during their own standoffs in 2022, while Trump has railed against it since his first term.
A cartoon by Clay Bennett.Trump’s frustrations have been building since the shutdown began. Aides told Axios that he largely ignored the impasse early on, boldly assuming that Democrats would fold on their demands to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies. But as the days dragged on—causing flight delays, federal workers to go unpaid, and looming cuts to SNAP benefits—the political heat has intensified.
And he has also fumed over another Senate tradition: the “blue slip” courtesy that allows senators to stall judicial nominees from their home states. Combined with the filibuster, Trump has told aides, these rules are giving Democrats leverage at a time when he believes Republicans should be steamrolling them.
Some Republicans have started to echo his frustration. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio floated the idea of ending the filibuster last month on Fox News.
“Let’s make this a Republican-only vote,” he said.
Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana told Axios he’d consider changing the rule “under certain circumstances.”
But there’s still no sign of a GOP majority willing to go that far.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear this week that Trump’s pressure campaign hasn’t moved him, saying that his opposition to scrapping the rule remains unchanged.
Still, the dynamic underscores an awkward reality for Republicans—one that Democrats have been quick to highlight. If ending the filibuster could reopen the government, it means that the GOP already has the power to do so.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he will not cave to Trump’s pressure campaign to end the filibuster.But Trump’s team insists otherwise.
“[He] feels really strongly about this. Republicans need to play tough, and they need to play smart,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. “Stay tuned. Just keep your eyes on Truth Social. The president is making his position on it quite clear. And again, he is right.”
Trump has also hinted at broader ambitions: ending the filibuster not only to reopen the government but to ram through priorities like a national voter ID law. And he’s warned Republicans that failure to act could increase the chances of Democrats taking control of Congress and the White House in the future.
In one of his more paradoxical twists, Trump’s demand puts him on the same side as some of the very Democrats he’s vilified. Progressive senators, like Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have long called for ending the filibuster, arguing that it’s an outdated relic of gridlock.
For Trump, it’s simple: When the rules get in his way, they just shouldn’t exist.
