President-elect Donald Trump is warming up to the Senate filibuster after calling for the procedural rule to be abolished in his first term.
In his interview with TIME, which named him Person of the Year, Trump said he has "respect" for the filibuster after it blocked progressives' push for a Supreme Court overhaul.
“You know, it makes it very difficult in the Senate. It makes it very, very difficult to overturn things. Now, in one way, that’s good. In another way, maybe you'd say it’s bad," he said.
"They were going to do a number on our Supreme Court that now it's not going to happen."
The Senate filibuster requires 60 votes to pass most legislation. Its supporters have called it a defense against majoritarian tyranny that encourages compromise, while others have criticized it as anti-democratic.
Partisan stances on the filibuster have tended to shift with the political winds. Ending or weakening the filibuster was a priority for Democrats during much of President Biden's term, as Biden called for carveouts in the filibuster to pass sweeping election reforms and to protect abortion after the repeal of Roe v. Wade.
The push for filibuster reform was blocked by former Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who became targets of left-wing outrage.
At times, left-wing criticism of the filibuster has been racially charged: former President Obama called it a "Jim Crow relic" in 2020. But with Trump returning to Washington after a stunning re-election victory, Democrats are embracing the filibuster once again, and they don't care how hypocritical it looks.
“I’d be lying if I said we’d be in a better position without the filibuster,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said. “We have a responsibility to stop autocratic and long-headed abuse of power or policy, and we’ll use whatever tools we have available. We’re not going to fight this battle with one hand tied behind our back.”
It isn't just Democrats changing position. Trump called to end the filibuster during his first term, but his demands were opposed by Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
The difference, though, is that Trump is embracing the filibuster on principle, while Democrats are doing so out of expediency, to block Trump's agenda.
Trump will begin his second term with Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, but the filibuster will remain an obstacle. He also has to contend with the unreliable support of some Senate Republicans, who have been slow to embrace his Cabinet.
While the filibuster remains in place for most Senate bills, it is a thing of the past when it comes to the president's nominees. Former Democratic Senator Harry Reid infamously invoked the "nuclear option" in 2013 to lower the threshold for Cabinet nominees and federal judges to 51 votes. Years later, McConnell extended the same principle to push through Trump's Supreme Court picks.
