Trump Demands Senate Sack Parliamentarian Over Border Bill

President Donald Trump is calling for the dismissal of the Senate's nonpartisan parliamentarian after she obstructed Republican efforts to secure border funding, warning that soft GOP senators risk losing their seats if they fail to act decisively on immigration.

Writing on Truth Social, the President criticised the Republican majority for keeping Elizabeth MacDonough in a post she has held since 2012. He incorrectly claimed that former President Barack Obama played a part in her appointment, alongside the actual appointee, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The clash centres on MacDonough's decision to strip funding for a major ballroom project from a crucial piece of border security and immigration enforcement legislation. For a nation grappling with a profound migration crisis, the obstruction of border security measures by procedural pedantry will strike many as an affront to democratic accountability and national sovereignty.

Trump accused MacDonough of being brutal to Republicans whilst sparing Democrats the same treatment. This is despite the fact that Democrats themselves demanded her dismissal in 2021, when she ruled against inserting a minimum wage increase into their American Rescue Plan pandemic relief package.

So why has she not been replaced? There are many fair people who would be qualified for that vital job.

He then turned his fire on his own party, accusing Republican senators of playing a very soft game compared to their Democrat counterparts. In his view, they allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize them.

The President's frustrations reflect a broader conservative weariness with unelected bureaucrats stalling the will of the electorate. He demanded that the Senate pass his voting restriction package, dubbed the Save America Act, and urged Republicans to abolish the filibuster. This would allow the GOP to push through legislation without Democrat support before they potentially lose control of Congress this autumn.

Get smart and tough Republicans, or you'll all be looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible.

MacDonough, an attorney who graduated from Vermont Law School, has served in the Senate's Office of the Parliamentarian for nearly three decades. She joined as an assistant parliamentarian in 1999 and was promoted three years later.

When she assumed the top role in 2012, she received bipartisan praise, including from Senator John Thune. At the time, Thune described her as very steeped in the traditions of the Senate.

The parliamentarian's duty is to adjudicate whether spending legislation considered under fast-track reconciliation procedures complies with the