President Donald Trump and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have been at odds for months over the latter's refusal to bend on the judicial blue slip tradition in Congress.
Quickly explained, if both senators from a given state reject a judicial nominee poised to serve in their jurisdiction, the nominee is disqualified, and Trump does not like the custom, because Democrats are now objecting to nominees in blue states simply to block his agenda.
Trump was recently caught on a hot mic balking at the process, and that is only going to drive the wedge deeper between the president and Grassley.
This all really came to a head in August, when several of Trump’s judiciary nominees were stalled.
When Trump was asked about his nominees being constantly rejected, he responded, “This is based on an old custom. It’s not based on a law. And I think it’s unconstitutional. And I’ll probably be filing a suit on that pretty soon.”
Grassley pushed back right away, stating, “In Biden admin Republicans kept 30 LIBERALS OFF BENCH THAT PRES TRUMP CAN NOW FILL W CONSERVATIVES.”
Trump did not want to hear it, however, and he really started to go after Grassley, who, to this point, had been a major ally of the president.
Trump just kept firing away at Grassley, including posting, “Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the ‘Blue Slip’ problem we are having with respect to the appointment of Highly Qualified Judges and U.S. Attorneys, with a mere flick of the pen.”
When this initially happened, I stuck up for Grassley because there is no way it was Trump’s influence that got the longtime legislator elected. The man has been in office since 1981 and has overwhelmingly won every election. He did not need Trump’s endorsement to win.
Grassley hit right back at Trump, stating, “Last night, I was surprised to see President Trump on Truth Social go after me and Senate Republicans over what we call the blue slip. I was offended by what the president said, and I’m disappointed it would result in personal insults.”
Trump’s intimidation tactics will never work with Grassley, and if he was ever even thinking about buckling, the childish insults only made him dig in more. The stunt completely backfired on Trump.
During a recent White House event, a mic near Trump was still hot, and he was heard complaining about his nominees being stalled.
He stated, "You know, I can’t appoint anybody. I can’t appoint anybody. Everybody I’ve appointed, their time has expired. Then they’re in default, then we’re losing."
On Monday, Trump went off again, stating, "I hope that somebody speaks to Senator Grassley about doing something about the blue slip because I'm telling you, John, I put up great people, top people, highest education, the best lawyers to be like U.S. attorney and both senators, it only takes one, but if they're Democrat senators, they say, 'We're not going to approve it.'"
I think Trump would be much better served to pick up the phone and invite Grassley over for a chat rather than complaining online and to media personalities. This is the one thing that I never understand about politicians. Rather than walk down the hall or make a call, they just prefer to air it all out in public, which is never going to end well.
