Trump can’t believe it. In addition to fighting with Democrats, he now has Republicans that are at odds with him.
And this GOP Senator betrayed Donald Trump in a move that’s creating turmoil in the Republican Party.
Trump’s Crusade to End the Senate’s Blue Slip Tradition
President Donald Trump is taking aim at a long-standing Senate practice that allows individual senators to wield significant power over judicial and U.S. attorney appointments in their home states. Known as the “blue slip,” this unwritten custom enables senators to block nominees for district courts and U.S. attorney positions, often delaying or derailing the confirmation process.
Trump’s campaign to abolish this tradition has ignited a public feud with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who staunchly defends its role in the Senate’s operations.
Trump announced plans to challenge the blue slip practice through legal action. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, he voiced frustration over the tradition’s impact on his ability to appoint key officials.
“We’re also going to be filing a lawsuit on blue slipping,” Trump declared. “You know, blue slips make it impossible for me, as president, to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney because they have a gentleman’s agreement. Nothing memorialized. It’s a gentleman’s agreement that’s about 100 years old, where if you have a president, like a Republican, and if you have a Democrat senator, that senator can stop you from appointing a judge or a U.S. attorney, in particular, those two.”
The president’s push comes as Senate Democrats have used the blue slip to slow down his nominees, creating significant hurdles in the confirmation process. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer invoked his blue slip authority to reject Trump’s U.S. Attorney picks for New York’s Southern and Eastern Districts.
Similarly, New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim blocked the nomination of Alina Habba for U.S. Attorney in their state. Habba, who served in the role on an interim basis, faced further complications when a judicial panel declined to extend her term. Trump later withdrew her nomination, only to reinstate her as interim U.S. Attorney after her replacement was dismissed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Trump’s frustration isn’t limited to Democrats. Over the weekend, he targeted Grassley, urging the Iowa senator to eliminate the blue slip practice entirely. Trump argued that the tradition undermines his constitutional authority to appoint judges and U.S. attorneys in states with at least one Democratic senator.
“This is because of an old and outdated ‘custom’ known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn, even though the Democrats, including Crooked Joe Biden (Twice!), have done so on numerous occasions,” he stated.
“Therefore, the only candidates that I can get confirmed for these most important positions are, believe it or not, Democrats! Chuck Grassley should allow strong Republican candidates to ascend to these very vital and powerful roles, and tell the Democrats, as they often tell us, to go to H*LL.”
Grassley, however, remains unmoved. In his own X posts, he defended the blue slip as a critical tool for Republicans, particularly during the Biden administration, when it enabled GOP senators to block liberal nominees and preserve vacancies for Trump’s picks.
“The 100-year-old ‘blue slip’ allows home state senators 2 [have] input on US [attorneys] & district court judges,” Grassley wrote. “In Biden admin, Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL [WITH] CONSERVATIVES.”
He also argued that nominees without blue slip approval face steep odds of confirmation, stating, “A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t [have] the votes to get out of [committee].”
The dispute reflects a larger battle over the Senate’s confirmation process, which has bogged down many of Trump’s nominees. Last month, Trump again pressed Grassley to “have the courage” to end the practice, which exists as a Senate custom rather than a formal law.
The issue gained urgency as bipartisan efforts to expedite confirmations collapsed before the Senate’s August recess. With Republicans planning to revisit the confirmation process after Labor Day, the blue slip debate is expected to dominate discussions.
As Trump prepares to challenge the tradition in court, the outcome could redefine the dynamics of judicial and U.S. attorney appointments, potentially shifting power away from individual senators and toward the executive branch.
For now, the blue slip remains a potent weapon, used by both parties to shape the nation’s courts and legal offices.
