President Donald Trump took to social media late Thursday night to rant over a Senate tradition known as the “blue slip,” a process that he decried as unfair and unconstitutional.
“A ‘Blue Slip’ means that if you’re a Republican President, and there happens to be just one Democrat Senator in a state where you are appointing a U.S. Attorney or District Court Judge, you will never be successful in getting a Republican confirmed,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
“In other words, ‘Blue Slips’ are a disaster, and I have eight GREAT Republican U.S. Attorney Candidates who will not be able to fulfill their service to the people of a state that voted overwhelmingly for me.”
Trump first launched his campaign against the blue slip in July, demanding Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) illuminate the longstanding Senate tradition of allowing senators to block judicial nominees that were appointed to preside over their own districts. Grassley pushed back though, leading to Trump attacking Grassley as a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only,” and suggesting that Grassley must “hate America.”
Trump’s attacks on Grassley received strong pushback from GOP lawmakers, including from many Trump loyalists like Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who asked Trump, “pretty please, with sugar on top,” to “back off” the issue.
Nevertheless, Trump continued his campaign against the blue slip late Thursday night, declaring it to be wholly unfair.
“The only one I can appoint is a Democrat, and that’s not the deal,” Trump wrote. “Nobody can say that is fair or, even, Constitutional. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
