Donald Trump is pressuring Sen. Thune to fire the Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Donald Trump is pressuring Senator John Thune to fire the Senate parliamentarian after she ruled against funding for the ballroom in the latest budget bill, according to recent reports. And this centers around Donald Trump and the GOP's efforts to include roughly $1 billion for Trump's planned White House ballroom project inside a massive reconciliation package. This was the same billion dollars that Trump said would originally be paid for with private donations. Now he wants us to pay for it. But not so fast, according to Elizabeth MacDonough.

[00:00:28]She's the non-partisan parliamentarian who gives determinations on the rules of the Senate. And she ruled that this provision does not pass the so-called Byrd rule, which prevents non-budget items from passing with a simple majority instead of needing the usual 60 votes. And that matters because Republicans currently don't have 60 Senate votes. So the president called Senate Majority Leader Thune on Monday to express his frustrations and urged him to fire the Senate parliamentarian, according to a third source. Thune declined to comment on whether the president asked him to oust MacDonough.

[00:00:59]But if it's any indication, a similar scenario came up last year when Republicans were trying to get the president's tax bill over the line through the same kind of process. And Trump allies called on Thune to fire MacDonough after she initially stripped out several Medicaid provisions. He didn't do it back then, so hopefully he won't do it now. And it's mind-boggling to say the least that Republicans in the Senate are debating a ballroom in honor of Trump while we're at war with Iran, we're paying soaring gas prices, stubborn inflation, there's rising Hatfield violence, and an economy that's starting to feel like it's charging us a convenience fee just to exist. And this ballroom fight is just the latest example of Republicans showing loyalty to their dear leader and convicted felon Trump instead of showing a shred of loyalty to their constituents, most of whom would prefer normal gas prices over a presidential ballroom. But as of today, it looks like neither of those two things are going to happen anytime soon. So follow for more updates.