Trump Sets Condition for Next Senate Republican Leader

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) (L) listens to President Donald Trump talks to reporters while hosting Republican congressional leaders and members of Trump's cabinet in the Oval Office at the White House on July 20, 2020. Doug Mills/Pool via Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 10 publicly mentioned one condition for the next leader of the Senate Republican Conference: He or she must clear the way for recess appointments for Trump administration officials.

“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 on social media platform Truth Social on Nov. 10, addressing the upcoming Senate leadership vote.

He noted that such votes can take “two years or more,” which is “what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again.”

“We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!” he wrote.

Aside from the request, Trump also said that Republicans should not confirm any judges in the coming months before his inauguration “because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership,” adding, “THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.”

Republicans last week won control of the Senate and are projected to keep their majority in the House, producing a full sweep of GOP power in Congress alongside Trump in the White House. This Republican trifecta in Washington could make it easier for the Trump administration to execute its agenda.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the current No. 2, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who held that job before Thune, are the front-runners in the secret ballot to replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is also set to run, and other candidates could still jump in.

McConnell is stepping aside from the post in January 2025 after almost two decades as leader. The winner for succession could steer the direction of the party for years to come.

Whether Trump endorses one of the contenders could become a determining factor.

“I don’t know what he’ll do,” Cornyn said of Trump in September. “But this is obviously an election between senators, and I think that’s where the voters are.”

So far, Trump has not publicly weighed in on any of the leading candidates.

Last week, Thune told CNBC that Trump could “exert a considerable amount of influence” but suggested the president-elect “stay out of that.”

“My preference would be, and I think it’s probably in his best interest, to stay out of that. These Senate secret ballot elections are probably best left to senators, and he’s got to work with all of us when it’s all said and done,” Thune said.

Trump and Thune have had a rocky relationship, with Trump in 2020 writing on X that the Senate GOP No. 2 “will be primaried” in the 2022 midterms.

Trump made the comment after Thune told reporters at the time that an effort to object to the Electoral College vote after the 2020 election would “go down like a shot dog” in the Senate. Thune later won his reelection bid.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has endorsed Scott, told conservative podcast host Jesse Kelly that he wants Trump to intervene in the Senate GOP leadership race in order to get his agenda passed in Congress.

“If you’ve got any influence with President Trump, ask President Trump to come out publicly and say he wants to work with someone as accomplished as Rick Scott to accomplish his agenda,” Johnson said.

“We need outside-the-box, paradigm-shifting-type thinking in the United States Senate and, working with President Trump, he’s going to need somebody like Rick Scott,” the senator said, adding that Trump should “come out and endorse Rick Scott publicly—it’s probably what Rick’s going to need to become the majority leader.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.