Trump demands Senate Republicans fire MacDonough — Parliamentarian Of The United States Senate
President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded that Senate Republicans fire Elizabeth MacDonough, the parliamentarian of the united states senate, after she ruled that White House ballroom security funding could not be added to an immigration enforcement bill. Trump pressed the Republican Senate leadership to act after MacDonough said the provision needed 60 votes under Senate rules.
MacDonough’s ruling blocked roughly $1 billion in White House and Secret Service security funding tied to Trump’s ballroom project from moving through the reconciliation package Republicans had hoped could pass with a simple majority. Trump’s response turned a procedural ruling into a direct fight over who controls the Senate’s rules referee.
MacDonough’s weekend ruling
MacDonough ruled this weekend that Republicans could not include the ballroom-related funding in the immigration enforcement bill. The disputed provision covered security upgrades, including hardened infrastructure, drone detection systems and Secret Service facilities. She determined the provision required 60 votes in the Senate.
The funding question mattered because Trump and his allies had argued that the ballroom itself would be paid for through private donations. Administration officials sought federal money for the security work around it, creating the dispute MacDonough resolved against Republicans.
Trump posts on Truth Social
Trump escalated the fight on Wednesday in a Truth Social post. He wrote that Republicans have kept the position of parliamentarian in the hands of Elizabeth MacDonough and said, “get smart and tough.” He also wrote, “Shockingly, Republicans have kept the very important position of ‘Parliamentarian’ in the hands of a woman, Elizabeth MacDonough, who was appointed, long ago, by Barack Hussein Obama and a vicious Lunatic known as Senator Harry Reid, who ran the Senate for the Dumocrats with an ‘iron fist,’” and added, “Over the years, she has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced?”
Trump also said MacDonough was appointed by Barack Hussein Obama and Senator Harry Reid. Obama did not have a say in MacDonough’s appointment in 2012. On Tuesday, Trump defended the project during a tour of the construction site and called it “a gift to the United States of America,” while saying donors, not taxpayers, were paying for the ballroom itself.
Thune faces the vote count
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that this was not the first time Trump had made such a demand. He told reporters, “there may be some issues related to the parliamentarian, but most of the issues we have here are votes.”
Thune added, “That’s, I guess, his opinion. But that would create even more vote issues here if we were to try and do something like that. So we'll make sure that everybody has got security around here,” drawing a line between Trump’s demand and the Senate math that still governs the package.
The immediate pressure point is whether Republicans try to keep the security funding in play without MacDonough’s ruling, or accept that the 60-vote threshold controls the provision. Trump’s Monday call to Thune, reported by Semafor, shows the push to remove her began before the public demand and now runs directly into the Senate leadership’s vote problem.
