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One year out from the 2026 midterm elections, President Donald Trump is predicting his own party will fare extremely poorly next year unless senators ditch the filibuster and ram through a host of partisan bills that he says would make the GOP nearly unbeatable in future contests. In a Truth Social post authored as polls opened for gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and a closely-watched mayoral election in his former home of New York City, Trump wrote that Democrats “are far more likely to win the Midterms, and the next Presidential Election” unless senators vote to scrap the 60-vote threshold for most legislation in the upper chamber. The longstanding Senate rule is widely considered to have a moderating effect on legislation moving through Congress because it requires bills to have bipartisan support to get through the Senate. But Trump groused that the filibuster makes it “impossible for Republicans to get Common Sense Policies done with these Crazed Democrat Lunatics being able to block everything by withholding their votes.” “FOR THREE YEARS, NOTHING WILL BE PASSED, AND REPUBLICANS WILL BE BLAMED. Elections, including the Midterms, will be rightfully brutal,” he added. Continuing, Trump claimed that ending the 60-vote requirement for most Senate-passed bills would let the GOP “get EVERYTHING approved, like no Congress in history” and suggested doing so would allow Republicans to pass laws making it harder for Democrats to win elections and cracking down on the rights of transgender people. “We will have FAIR, FREE, and SAFE Elections, No Men in Women’s Sports or Transgender for Everybody, Strong Borders, Major Tax and Energy Cuts, and will secure our Second Amendment, which the Democrats will also terminate, IMMEDIATELY,” he said. He then added that a failure to break the Senate’s supermajority requirement would make Democrats “more likely to do well in the upcoming Elections” and rattled off a parade of horribles for Republicans, including the addition of Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico as states and potentially packing the Supreme Court. Democrats, Trump said, “have much less chance of WINNING if we have Great Policy Wins after Wins after Wins.” He also said, by contrast, that the GOP would become “the party that cannot be beaten” in future elections if senators go nuclear and allow passage of his preferred bills. The president’s boast came on the heels of a sit-down interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes in which he claimed that Republicans would “not lose power” ever again if they are able to pass laws without the need for compromise with Democrats in the Senate. “The Republicans have to get tougher. If we end the filibuster, we can do exactly what we want. We're not gonna lose power,” he said. Despite Trump’s fervent demands for Republican senators to toss out the one remaining lever of power available to his Democratic opposition ahead of next year’s elections, it’s highly unlikely that senators will choose to heed his wishes. The top Republican in the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, has along with many of his GOP colleagues pushed back against calls to end the filibuster. Asked about Trump’s comments to CBS News on Monday, Thune told reporters it would not be possible to implement the so-called “nuclear option” because not enough senators would support doing so. “The votes aren’t there,” he said.
