President Donald Trump has demanded that his party destroy a longstanding process for appointing judges and attorneys after losing MAGA prosecutors he had installed to go after his enemies.
Days after Trump loyalists Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan were disqualified from their roles as top prosecutors in New Jersey and Eastern Virginia, the president launched an angry tirade on members of his own party for making it harder to appoint MAGA acolytes to the courts.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump lashed out at the Senate’s so-called “blue slip” tradition, which allows home-state senators to veto presidential nominees to district courts and U.S. attorney offices.
He also demanded that Senate Majority Leader John Thune “terminate” the process, which would effectively make it easier for Trump to appoint more people to help carry out his retribution campaign.
“Blue Slips are making it impossible to get great Republican Judges and U.S. Attorneys approved to serve in any state where there is even a single Democrat Senator,” the president said.
“If they say no, then it is OVER for that very well qualified Republican candidate. Only a really far left Democrat can be approved. It is shocking that Republicans, under Senator Chuck G, allow this scam to continue. So unfair to Republicans, and not Constitutional.
“I am hereby asking Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a fantastic guy, to get something done, ideally the termination of Blue Slips. Too many GREAT REPUBLICANS are being SENT PACKIN’. None are getting approved!!!”
Thune, however, rejected Trump’s call and insisted that the Senate had approved his nominees at a “record rate.”
“This is a procedure that’s been in place for a long time, that both Republicans and Democrats support because it gives them some input—particularly in those judicial appointments that are made in their individual states— some input into that decision-making process,” he told Fox News, in a rare show of GOP pushback.
The president’s push to change the rules comes days after Habba was forced to resign as New Jersey’s top prosecutor after an appeals court found she was serving in her position unlawfully.
Habba is a staunch MAGA loyalist who defended Trump on several high-profile cases, including the defamation lawsuit won by New York writer E. Jean Carroll and the New York civil fraud trial that found Trump had inflated the value of his properties for financial gain.
“The court ruling has made it untenable for her to effectively run her office with politicized judges, pausing trials designed to bring violent criminals to justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Monday.
Habba’s decision to step down made her the latest Trump pick to be disqualified from her role after the courts found that they were serving in violation of federal appointment laws.
Three other MAGA prosecutors have also suffered a similar fate, most notably former beauty pageant contestant Lindsey Halligan, who Trump appointed in Eastern Virginia to prosecute two of his enemies: FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Sigal Chatta, who was Nevada’s acting US attorney and Bill Essayli, who was the acting US attorney for California’s central district, have also been disqualified.
The blue/slip tradition has been used for years to give home-state senators a de facto veto over judicial and U.S. attorney appointments from their state.
Under the practice, both home-state senators get a chance to submit a blue slip saying whether they support the nominee or object to them.
If a senator withholds a blue slip or returns a negative one, the Senate Judiciary Committee will not move forward with a hearing or recommendation for that nominee.
“I don’t think it’s going to change,” Thune said.
“It’s been in place for a long time, and, like I said, there are Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and off the Judiciary Committee, for that matter, who support this and support it strongly.”
