Conservative Pundit Jabs GOP Senator for Wanting to Give Away Senate’s ‘Last Living Function’ to Trump

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Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) irked longtime National Review writer Dan McLaughlin this week when he went to bat for President Donald Trump making recess appointments, which Republican leaders have so far blocked this session.

“The Senate should’ve let Trump make recess appointments,” Lee wrote on X over the weekend, sharing a Washington Examiner report on his proposal to do just that.

“I’ve drafted an adjournment resolution, one that would allow President Trump to invoke his recess appointment powers. So if this is the way the Democrats want to play, they might not like the result,” Lee said Saturday in a clip posted to X.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) left the door open last week for recess appointments or for the use of the so-called “nuclear option” to change the rules and allow confirmations by a straight majority vote on the floor. “I think everything is on the table,” Thune told reporters when pressed about the 140 Trump nominations being blocked so far by individual senators.

“Fixing the rules, not just for now, but for the long term would be a better solution for it. But at this point right now, I wouldn’t say we’re taking any options off the table,” Thune added.

McLaughlin, however, took issue with Lee’s pushing for recess appointments.

“At that point, the Senate may as well disband,” he wrote in response to Lee, adding:

It doesn’t pass laws, it doesn’t ratify treaties, it never convicts on executive branch impeachments, it barely debates budgets. The confirmation power is its last living function.

The Hill reported on Tuesday that Thune is facing a challenge among GOP senators to changing the rules to force through nominations. “There’s a core group of people that are wary of setting new precedents or changing anything that’s going to affect them when the shoe’s on the other foot. I don’t think it’s a slam dunk,” a GOP strategist told the publication, warning of Democrats returning to power and doing the same thing.

The Hill also noted that Republican senators placed sweeping holds on Biden nominees during his term in order to exact compromises on key issues. Then-Senator JD Vance (R-OH), for example, put a hold on all of Biden’s Judicial nominees in 2023 to protest Trump’s indictments.

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