House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back on President Donald Trump’s late-night call to eliminate the Senate filibuster to break the government shutdown, stressing that the filibuster is a Senate decision and a long-standing safeguard. Johnson said the issue is not his to decide and warned that nuking the filibuster now would hand Democrats a playbook for sweeping changes. The president’s Truth Social posts show his frustration, while the shutdown drags into its 31st day with repeated procedural blockades in the Senate. Senate leaders insist the filibuster remains crucial, and current tallies show Republicans still need five Democrats to overcome it.
At a Friday press conference Johnson made it clear the filibuster debate sits squarely in the Senate’s lane. “Look, I’ll just say this in general, as I’ve said many times about the filibuster, it’s not my call. I don’t have a say in this. It’s a Senate chamber issue,” Johnson said. He framed the filibuster as a protective measure that Republicans would miss if roles were reversed.
Johnson spelled out the reason the filibuster matters: it requires 60 votes to clear procedural hurdles and move bills to final votes, preventing sudden, sweeping shifts. Senate Democrats once tried to erase that threshold and were stopped by members of their own party, showing how fragile any nuclear-option momentum can be. The balance in the upper chamber still makes the filibuster a real check on rapid, partisan change.
JOHNSON TURNS UP SHUTDOWN PRESSURE ON DEMOCRATS AS GOP UNEASE GROWS
President Trump grew impatient late Thursday and used Truth Social to press Republicans to act. “It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” he wrote. That blunt call came after years of Democrats attempting similar moves when they were in power.
“Just a short while ago, the Democrats, while in power, fought for three years to do this, but were unable to pull it off because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Never have the Democrats fought so hard to do something because they knew the tremendous strength that terminating the Filibuster would give them,” Trump wrote. He argued the move would immediately end the shutdown if Republicans used it now.
TRUMP URGES GOP TO ‘END THE SHUTDOWN’ BY GOING NUCLEAR ON SENATE FILIBUSTER
“Well, now WE are in power, and if we did what we should be doing, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous, Country destroying ‘SHUT DOWN.’ If the Democrats ever came back into power, which would be made easier for them if the Republicans are not using the Great Strength and Policies made available to us by ending the Filibuster, the Democrats will exercise their rights, and it will be done in the first day they take office, regardless of whether or not we do it.” That passage captures the trade-off at stake: short-term leverage versus long-term precedent.
Johnson read Trump’s post as frustration, not a final blueprint for Senate procedure. “What you’re seeing is an expression of the president’s anger at the situation. He is as angry as I am, and the American people are, about this madness,” Johnson said. “He just desperately wants the government to be reopened so that all these resources can flow to the people who need it so much.”
Johnson also warned what would follow if the filibuster were thrown away, listing specific moves Democrats have openly discussed. “The Democrats, look, they’ve said what they would do. They would pack the Supreme Court. They would make Puerto Rico and D.C. states. They would ban firearms. They would do all sorts of things that would be very harmful for the country, and the safeguard in the Senate has always been the filibuster,” Johnson said. He added, “But again, not my issue, not something I get to even weigh in on.”
The shutdown has stretched into its 31st day after repeated procedural defeats for GOP funding measures, with Senate Democrats blocking advance on the short-term funding bill multiple times since mid-September. At current counts Republicans would still need five Democrats to join them to overcome a filibuster and pass funding by conventional means. That math, and the political risks, help explain why many Republicans hesitate to pursue the nuclear option now.
Even after earlier moves this year to speed confirmations, a full repeal of the filibuster remains unlikely, according to Senate leadership signals. “[Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s] position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged,” Thune’s spokesperson Ryan Wrasse said in a statement. For now the filibuster stands as both a procedural hurdle and a guardrail in Washington’s ongoing fight over funding and power.
