President Donald Trump wants Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to fire Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough and move the SAVE America Act.
Trump publicly demanded the firing after MacDonough ruled that key parts of the bill couldn't move through budget reconciliation. The bill would require proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration and photo ID to cast a ballot in federal elections.
The House passed it in February, and now the Senate has turned a popular election-security measure into another slow walk through procedural fog.
MacDonough has served as Senate parliamentarian since 2012, after then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed her. The parliamentarian advises the Senate on rules and procedure while maintaining a nonpartisan outlook, but the office isn't carved into stone by Moses.
The parliamentarian serves at the majority leader's pleasure, and Thune can pretend his hands are tied, but the knot is mostly decorative.
Thune quickly rejected Trump's call and defended MacDonough as a fair referee, but when the game becomes ridiculous, referees still get replaced. From Yahoo News:
But despite Trump's pleas for her ouster, Thune indicated that Macdonough's job was safe in short order, according to Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio.
"Parliamentarian rulings break both ways. You lose a few, you win a few. That's been true when the Democrats have been in the majority too. That's a hard job. It's a very specific skill set. And you need somebody that is going to be a fair referee," said the Republican leader after being asked about Trump's comments.
Democrats have spent years treating institutions as tools when their power is on the line. If a Republican-appointed parliamentarian blocked an 80/20 Democratic priority, does anyone believe Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) would hold a candlelight vigil for Senate tradition?
The smelling salts would stay in the drawer, and the firing would be framed as democracy's urgent housekeeping.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) already gave Democrats breathing room when the Senate voted in March to begin debate on the SAVE America Act. The vote advanced 51-48, but Murkowski joined the Democrats in opposition. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) backed the revised House version after an earlier concern was addressed.
Those two names tell the story: Republicans can win elections, gain gavels, and still watch the same small Senate club treat conservative priorities like they need to pass a character test written by the minority.
Trump's Truth Social broadside is very Trump; subtlety has never been his native tongue. The better question is whether the public pressure is necessary. Maybe Trump has already pressed Thune in private; perhaps private pressure met the same polished Senate answer that always seems to arrive with a memo, a shrug, and a lunch reservation.
Either way, Trump knows what millions of voters know: the swamp rarely says no directly. It smiles, cites procedure, schedules more meetings, and lets urgency die of old age.
The SAVE America Act shouldn't be a hard sell. American elections belong to American citizens. Voters who need ID to board a plane, buy cold medicine, open a bank account, or enter plenty of federal buildings understand the basic request.
Critics on the left warn about access problems and paperwork burdens, and those concerns deserve practical answers. They don't justify turning citizenship verification into a forbidden subject.
Thune now owns the moment: he can lead like a majority leader or manage decline like a McConnell museum docent. Trump put the issue in public because public pressure is often the only language Washington understands.
The Senate swamp has mastered the art of making defeat look procedural. Voters didn't send Republicans to Washington so the parliamentarian could become the final word on election security.
Republicans control the Senate, House, and the White House. If they can't move a citizenship-and-ID bill with broad public support, the issue isn't only Elizabeth MacDonough. The concern is a Senate culture that treats conservative wins as risky, delay as wisdom, and backbone as bad manners.
Trump is right to drag the fight into daylight. Thune can prove he's more than the caretaker of Mitch McConnell's old furniture, or he can let the swamp keep arranging the room.
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David Manney writes for PJ Media with the outlook of someone who has spent nearly sixty years watching the world with both eyes open. He leans on plain language, lived experience, and a stubborn belief that character still matters, even when no one is paying attention. A former graphic designer, marketing content specialist, marketing professional, journalist, and technical writer, he tries to sort truth from noise and share what he sees without theatrics.
He lives in the Midwest with his wife, who is smarter than he is and far more graceful about it, along with their two dogs, Watson and Mabel. Manney often jokes that he has never faked sarcasm in his life, and most days his columns prove it. Follow him on X here.
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