President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said Senate Republicans’ next leader must embrace so-called recess appointments, temporary appointments that can occur when the chamber is out of session.
“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Trump wrote in a post to the social media network X. “Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again.”
Notably, Trump did not endorse any of the three GOP candidates for Wednesday’s upcoming leadership election — Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida — though influential figures in the conservative movement have rallied around Scott in the aftermath of last week’s Republican electoral victories.
Scott, though, came out strongly in support of Trump’s idea. “100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible,” he wrote in response to Trump X post, prompting the site’s owner, Elon Musk, to post “Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!”
