Trump Puts Chuck Grassley on Blast Over Judicial Nominees: ‘DO IT!’

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

President Donald Trump put Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on notice, urging the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee to eliminate a Senate custom regarding judicial nominations.

When considering nominees to the federal bench, the Senate uses “blue slips,” in which senators representing a state where a judicial nominee is to be seated express approval or disapproval. If a home state senator objects, or especially if both senators object, the Senate typically does not take up the nomination, even if the nominee would otherwise be confirmed by a majority of senators.

On Tuesday, the president took aim at blue slips and Grassley by demanding that the senator abandon the custom.

“Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the “Blue Slip” problem we are having with respect to the appointment of Highly Qualified Judges and U.S. Attorneys, with a mere flick of the pen,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Democrats like Schumer, Warner, Kaine, Booker, Schiff, and others, SLEAZEBAGS ALL, have an ironclad stoppage of Great Republican Candidates.”

Trump went on to note that the Senate’s adherence to blue slips means he will likely be unable to get his judicial nominees in states with two Democratic senators confirmed.

“The only way to beat this Hoax is to appoint a Democrat or, a weak and ineffective Republican,” he continued. “Therefore, I would never be able to appoint Great Judges or U.S. Attorneys in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, and other places, where there is, coincidentally, the highest level of crime and corruption.”

The president concluded his lengthy screed by writing, “Chuck, I know you have the Courage to do this, DO IT!”

In 2023, The New York Times called on then-Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) to end blue slips so the Democratic-controlled Senate could confirm then-President Joe Biden’s nominees, whom red-state Republicans were blocking. Durbin resisted that call and kept the custom.