Jul 30, 2025 - Politics & Policy
Why Thune needs recess to start
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune talks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on July 29. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Democrats are attacking each other on the Senate floor, Republicans are going at it in committee and the president is lighting up a key GOP ally on Truth Social.
Why it matters: Party infighting seems contagious this summer. But leaders don't know how to break the fever — and they are in their own standoff over how and when to take a much-needed recess.
- Stock ban blowup: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) got a stock trading ban through committee Wednesday with help from Democrats — but only after angering the White House and his GOP colleagues who slammed him in a spicy hearing.
- Trump went off on Truth Social, calling Hawley a "second-tier Senator" and accusing him of "playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats."
- Fed meltdown: Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) is escalating his attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell with a resolution demanding that interest rates be lowered. It could fracture the GOP. Many Republicans are frustrated that interest rates have not been cut, but they are also wary of undermining the Fed's independence.
- Judges drama: Trump also turned his Truth Social ire on 91-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday night for allowing Democrats to veto some judicial nominees from their states through a long-followed practice called "blue slips." Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters there was little interest in changing the custom.
- Democratic violence: Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) infuriated his Democratic colleagues Tuesday by accusing them of not doing enough to counter Trump. "We are being complicit to Donald Trump," he said in a heated back-and-forth on the floor with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.).
The big picture: The intraparty tensions come as Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) face off in a game of chicken that also could affect how quickly senators can break.
- Democrats have allowed zero nominees confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent — unprecedented at this point — and are refusing to agree to speeding up the lengthy procedure.
- Republicans are promising to keep working into late hours, weekends and the scheduled time off — and threatening to take even more dramatic steps, including rule changes to speed up the process if Democrats don't relent.
- All eyes are on whether a bipartisan deal can be reached to push through a package of 40-plus nominations to satisfy Trump and release the pressure valve in the Capitol.
