The Wall Street Journal Trashes Trump Plan to Nuke Filibuster: ‘Republicans Would Be Dumb’ to Listen
President Donald Trump speaks to the media after boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, enroute to Florida. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board trashed President Donald Trump’s call to nuke the filibuster on Monday night, submitting that “Republicans would be dumb” to heed it.
After making note of Trump’s recent rhetoric on the subject — he added to it in a Tuesday morning missive that concluded, “TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER NOW, END THE RIDICULOUS SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATELY, AND THEN, MOST IMPORTANTLY, PASS EVERY WONDERFUL REPUBLICAN POLICY THAT WE HAVE DREAMT OF, FOR YEARS, BUT NEVER GOTTEN. WE WILL BE THE PARTY THAT CANNOT BE BEATEN – THE SMART PARTY!!!” — the Journal bluntly asserted that “Republicans would be dumb and hurt the country by breaking the filibuster.”
It continued:
Recall what probably would have passed in the Biden years without the filibuster check.
• Bernie Sanders’s $17-an-hour national minimum wage.
• All of the Biden Build Back Better plan, with its huge tax increases and cradle-to-grave entitlement programs.
• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s bill to restructure the Supreme Court.
• Nancy Pelosi’s bill to nationalize election law in all 50 states on the California model.
• Statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, with four new Democratic Senators.
• The PRO Act that would repeal much of Taft-Hartley on unionization and ban right-to-work laws for voluntary union membership that exist in 26 states.
• A national law codifying Roe v. Wade abortion standards.
“The filibuster rule is often frustrating, but its virtue is that it serves as a check on passing extreme laws with narrow majorities. It also gives the minority party a voice when it controls neither House of Congress nor the White House. It forces compromise. It also reduces the chances of a ping-pong effect of passage, repeal, and passage again that leads to economic and legal uncertainty,” concluded the editorial. “Most Republicans understand this. But some Senators, hoping to curry favor, may start to echo the President’s short-term opportunism. The Democratic left is quietly cheering them on.”
