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On Wednesday, President Donald Trump demanded that Republican senators fire Elizabeth MacDonough, the parliamentarian for that chamber, due to her recent decision to block funding for the White House ballroom in an upcoming reconciliation bill.
The Senate parliamentarian is a nonpartisan advisor who provides counsel to Senate leadership regarding its rules. On some occasions, the parliamentarian can choose to block the inclusion of certain provisions in a bill if they are incongruent with the regulations of the Senate.
Reconciliation bills, which can only be passed once per year, are budgetary-only bills allowing the passage of legislation without the threat of a filibuster block.
Last week, while examining the proposal to include funding for the ballroom in a reconciliation bill, MacDonough found that it would violate the rule restricting non-budgetary items from being included, thus requiring Republicans to remove the provision from the legislation.
Trump reportedly complained to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) on Monday over MacDonough’s action, demanding that she be fired. On Wednesday, Trump made that demand public in a post on Truth Social.
Trump described it as “shocking” that Republicans have kept MacDonough in her position for so long, falsely claiming that former President Barack Obama played a role in her appointment in 2012, and describing the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who played a minor role in choosing her, as a “vicious Lunatic.”
“Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats,” Trump said, using a pejorative to describe Democratic lawmakers.
Trump’s claim is false — MacDonough has made many similar decisions affecting Democrats, blocking their attempts to include non-budgetary items in reconciliation packages, too.
“Why has she not been replaced?” Trump asked in his post.
The president also demanded that Republicans pass his controversial Save America Act, an election bill that would enact stricter limitations on who is eligible to register to vote.
To pass that bill and others, Trump told Republicans to “kill the filibuster.”
“Get smart and tough Republicans, or you’ll all be looking for a job much sooner than you thought possible!” Trump added.
Trump’s proposed ballroom is unpopular among the American people. Even with the suggestion that the new East Wing addition would be funded by private donors — a controversy on its own, as it raises deep concerns regarding conflicts of interest — 56 percent of Americans said they opposed the idea, while only 28 percent approved, according to a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll from last month.
On Tuesday, Trump falsely told reporters that he and those donors were paying for the ballroom as a “gift to the United States of America.” However, if that were true, his disagreement over MacDonough’s decision to block public funding of the project wouldn’t matter.
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