President Donald Trump wants the Senate to confirm almost 150 of his nominees to judgeships, diplomatic posts and other government positions before lawmakers begin a month-long summer vacation on the week of Aug. 3. Republican leaders are threatening to delay – or even cancel – the break if senators don’t comply.
“Republicans must play to win,” Trump wrote Saturday, July 27, on Truth Social.
“Clear the 135,” he added, misstating the number of nominees. “So badly needed!”
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to call for final votes on at least some of the nominees during the week of July 27, according to Punchbowl News. However, Republican members have been informed that they may need to remain in Washington through the weekend, if not longer.
Republicans hold 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats, and any nominee can be confirmed with 51 votes.
Democrats, however, are resisting an expedited confirmation process, especially on a controversial nominee to a federal appeals court.
25 diplomatic posts up for confirmation
Many of the 144 pending nominations are for relatively obscure jobs in Trump’s administration: chief financial officer of the Environmental Protection Agency, administrator for federal procurement policy and Amtrak board member.
But the list also includes Susan Monarez, Trump’s nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has been without a permanent leader since Trump took office in January.
Trump is seeking confirmation of 25 nominees for diplomatic posts, including prospective U.S. ambassadors for such countries as Croatia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Finland and Malta. Among the nominees is Kimberly Guilfoyle, whom Trump named the ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle is a former Fox News host who was once engaged to Donald Trump Jr. between 2021 and 2024.
The Senate could vote on Trump’s nomination for six open judgeships. One of those nominations is the most controversial on the list.
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President Donald Trump is seeking Senate approval this week of 144 nominees. They include six judicial nominees and 25 who were named to diplomatic posts.
Controversial judicial nominee
Trump nominated Emil Bove, one of his former personal lawyers, to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Jersey. But Democrats strongly oppose the nomination, citing claims by a whistleblower that Bove – the principal associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice – suggested that prosecutors simply ignore court orders that undermined Trump’s agenda. The agency responded to the claims, dismissing the whistleblower as a “disgruntled employee.”
Bove also drew criticism for firing prosecutors who worked on cases involving the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol and for his role in dismissing corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, D, over the objections of prosecutors overseeing the case.
Some legal observers have suggested that Trump may be considering Bove for a future opening on the Supreme Court. Democrats walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee when the panel’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called for a vote on endorsing Bove’s nomination before all lawmakers had a chance to speak.
Bove has denied claims that he would simply carry out Trump’s wishes if confirmed.
“There is a wildly inaccurate caricature of me in the mainstream media,” Bove said during his confirmation hearing in June. “I am not anybody’s henchman, I am not an enforcer.”
