The Trump administration saw yet another high-profile departure Wednesday, with Navy Secretary John Phelan heading to the exits. Senate Republicans are bracing for even more.
President Donald Trump’s recent administration shakeup — the sacking of Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi as well as this week’s departure of Lori Chavez-DeRemer — has created openings for a slew of potential confirmations, and GOP senators are contemplating who might be next and how quickly Trump should make any further changes.
No Republicans are publicly urging any particular oustings. But privately GOP senators believe Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and FBI Director Kash Patel could be at risk of leaving — voluntarily or not.
“He’s in a bad mood,” one GOP senator said about Trump. “He’s preparing to really let a lot of them go.”
A further Cabinet shakeup would add more onto the Senate’s plate, and some GOP senators want anyone eyeing an exit to do it sooner rather than later to give the lawmakers the longest runway possible for confirming a successor.
On their minds is looming work on a budget reconciliation bill (maybe two), soon-to-lapse surveillance powers, a spate of lower-level nominations plus a potential Supreme Court vacancy.
“The number of working days are very limited,” Sen. Thom Tillis said in an interview. “You just do the math. It’s a very compressed schedule.”
That’s not to mention the looming midterms — and the possibility the GOP could lose control of the chamber.
Another GOP senator granted anonymity to speak candidly said that it would “make sense to do it now” and “you never know what’s going to happen to the Senate” in the midterms.
But several acknowledged the obvious: Trump will move on his own timeline.
And Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate already has a “full plate, so confirming new people is going to take a while.”
What else we’re watching:
— Eyes on the House after Senate vote-a-rama: Just after 3:30 a.m., the Senate voted 50-48 to green-light the GOP’s plan to send tens of billions of dollars to immigration enforcement agencies in the coming years. Now House Republicans need to approve the budget blueprint before GOP leaders can move on to crafting the party-line package itself. Thune told reporters that Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t guaranteed the House can adopt the budget resolution in its current form.
— The latest on 702: Thune early Thursday also filed cloture on a three-year extension of the key spy authority known as Section 702 — an insurance policy in case the House can’t agree to a plan. “If the House can’t move by sometime tomorrow, then my assumption is we’re going to have to figure it out next week because we can’t afford to go dark,” he said.
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
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