In President Donald Trump’s view, Senate filibusters should only take place when a senator stands up and holds the floor. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump to GOP: Dump the filibuster before Schumer does The president shares some gossip during a meeting at the White House Tuesday.

President Donald Trump had a simple message for Senate Republicans during a meeting at the White House on Tuesday: Kill the filibuster now, before Chuck Schumer and the Democrats do.

Trump told more than 15 House and Senate GOP appropriators that Schumer, the Senate minority leader, would get rid of the legislative filibuster if Democrats took over the chamber in November. According to several lawmakers, Trump suggested that a mutual friend he shares with Schumer heard this from the New York Democrat and then passed the tidbit onto the president.


In Trump’s view, Senate filibusters should take place only when a senator stands up and holds the floor. Trump mentioned “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” the 1939 movie in which Jimmy Stewart’s character, Jefferson Smith, stages a filibuster until a corrupt Senate leader is exposed, as an example of how the process should operate.

Trump — ecstatic over the Supreme Court ruling Tuesday affirming his travel ban — also pushed hard for a boost in funding for his controversial border wall. Trump wants $5 billion for the wall this year. So far, the House and Senate Appropriations panels have budgeted a fraction of that amount, and Democratic senators are dug in against supplying more than the $1.6 billion the White House initially requested.

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The president made no threats about shutting down the federal government this fall if he didn’t get his wall money, which pleased the GOP lawmakers, who worry about the political fallout just weeks before Election Day.

But a big chunk of the lengthy meeting was spent on one of Trump’s favorite topics: railing against the filibuster. The filibuster and its 60-vote threshold on legislation has been a major source of tension in today’s GOP. Trump and House Republicans hate it, arguing it is archaic and abused by the minority. But many Senate Republicans defend it as a key weapon in fending off liberal priorities like cap and trade and single-payer health care.

Trump said during the meeting that keeping the filibuster in place could mean “the end of the party,” according to several lawmakers who attended. Senate Democrats will block much of the GOP agenda, he said, but voters will see Republicans failing to get things done and turn against them at the polls.

“We talked about the old movie where you have to go hold the floor as a senator,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), a top member of the House Appropriations Committee who has repeatedly spoken out against the Senate filibuster. “If you go back to 50 votes, you could still have a filibuster, but you would have to go down to the floor to do that. I totally agree with the president, and the American people are getting very frustrated.”

Aderholt added: “I think his message was that it would be very difficult for us to go back home and explain to our Republican base ... why we’re not doing anything when we’ve got the ability to change that rule.”

Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), another attendee who spoke against the filibuster, said that issue was the most contentious part of the two hour-plus meeting.

“Each House member that was there spoke up in support of what I brought up,” Graves said, who added that “most” of the senators disagreed.

“Obviously, they are traditionalists. They seemed to spend a little bit of time fixated that they might be in the minority one day,” he said.

Trump received pushback from some lawmakers, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who says historically that Republicans are far less likely to control all of government than Democrats. But other senators, such as Steve Daines of Montana and Richard Shelby of Alabama, did not defend the filibuster rule.

According to one lawmaker, "Shelby said, 'I support going to a simple majority.' And the president looked at him, shook his hand and said, 'Where have you been?'"

At the end, Graves said, “In the spirit of compromise, why don’t we just get get rid of the filibuster on [spending bills]?" Trump looked at Graves and said, “No, let's just do it for everything."

Trump’s argument — that Schumer is ready to use the “nuclear option” to eliminate the legislative filibuster on Day One as majority leader — isn’t shared by the Senate Republican leadership.

According to a senior GOP senator who spoke on condition of anonymity, Schumer has privately reassured Republican senators in recent weeks that he would not change the rules and is committed to keeping the filibuster. Schumer’s office declined to comment.

Trump also pressed the Republican lawmakers, all of whom help write Congress’ spending bills, to provide as much money as they can for the border wall. The total cost has been estimated at $25 billion or more. Democrats have decried the project as a taxpayer boondoggle, but they yielded to GOP pressure to provide $1.6 billion in funding. Republicans are seeking a similar amount this year, though Trump wants far more.

“Now that construction has begun, he wants to ensure we’re going to have a funding mechanism moving forward,” Daines said.

Rachael Bade contributed to this report.