Donald Trump spent over a year begging Senate Republicans to kill the filibuster before Democrats could.
John Thune refused every single time, and now Democrats hold the Senate majority Trump warned about.
A Democrat senator just confirmed on the record exactly what Republicans were told would happen next.
Senate Democrats Just Confirmed They'll Use the Nuclear Option on the Filibuster
Sen. Ed Markey told Fox News Digital that Democrats aren't ruling anything out when it comes to the filibuster.
Sen. Andy Kim admitted scrapping it could be a "double-edged sword."
Kim didn't say no.
He said Democrats need to go in with their eyes wide open before they pull the trigger.
That's not a warning to his own party.
That's a confession.
Chuck Schumer went silent when reporters asked if he'd nuke the filibuster the moment Democrats retake the White House.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen is already running to replace Schumer as majority leader, and he argues the rule hands a handful of senators more power than the voters who elected them.
Van Hollen wants it gone completely.
These aren't fringe voices ranting on social media.
These are the people about to run the United States Senate.
This isn't abstract for ICE agents or border patrol either.
Senate Democrats already blocked a clean DHS funding bill this year using the same 60-vote wall they're now admitting they'll tear down the second it's theirs.
The SAVE America Act, the election integrity bill Trump has pushed all year, is stuck behind that same wall.
This exact move has happened before, twice.
Harry Reid torched the filibuster for judicial nominees in 2013.
Mitch McConnell used Reid's own precedent to confirm Neil Gorsuch four years later.
Each time, the party that pulled the trigger used it immediately to get exactly what it wanted.
Democrats are counting on doing the same thing again, except this time it won't stop at nominees.
Why the Lame-Duck Session Is Republicans' Last Shot to Kill the 60-Vote Rule
Republicans held the Senate majority all year.
Trump told them flatly in Politico that the filibuster was "hurting the Republican Party."
He said it again at Mount Rushmore.
He said it again during the 43-day shutdown.
Sen. Ron Johnson wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Republicans should "beat Democrats to the punch before it's too late."
Thune said no every time.
Senate Republicans just reelected Thune as their leader days after a midterm defeat that erased at least seven of their own Senate seats.
They rewarded the one man who guaranteed the filibuster would still be standing when Democrats walked back into power.
The House Freedom Caucus is already demanding Speaker Johnson and Thune "strip Democrat leverage" before the clock runs out on this Congress.
That clock is the lame duck session, and it's the last chance Republicans get.
The SAVE America Act Dies if Republicans Wait for Democrats to Nuke the Filibuster First
The one thing that fires me up most about this story is simple: Republicans still have the gavel, and they still won't swing it.
Republicans are about to hand Democrats a weapon they spent a year promising not to disarm themselves.
Every Trump judicial nominee still stuck in the pipeline, every border funding bill, every tax cut extension – Democrats can block all of it next year with 41 votes if the filibuster survives.
That's the price of Thune's caution.
If Democrats are going to scrap the filibuster the first week they control the Senate and the White House, Republicans protecting it now buys them nothing but a shorter runway to get things done.
A Republican-triggered repeal during the lame duck session could still confirm Trump's remaining nominees and pass the SAVE America Act before Democrats ever touch the gavel.
The only real downside is a cycle of pundits calling it hypocrisy, and that's a trade conservatives should make without hesitation.
Andy Kim just admitted the filibuster cuts both ways.
Republicans should swing that blade first, while the majority is still theirs.
Sources:
- Hannah Brennan, "Democrats Eye Killing Senate Filibuster, and Lawmaker Warns Move Could Be a 'Double-Edged Sword'," Fox News, November 14, 2026.
- "Senate Republicans Double Down on John Thune's Failed Leadership," The Federalist, November 11, 2026.
- "GOP Senators Stick With Thune Despite Calls for Post-Election Reckoning," The Daily Wire, November 10, 2026.
- Matt Margolis, "The Time to Nuke the Filibuster Is Now," PJ Media, July 4, 2026.
- "Talking, Nuking, or Voting on the Filibuster: Where Does GOP Senate Infighting Go From Here?" The Daily Signal, March 20, 2026.
- Kelly Sadler, "Republicans Nuke Filibuster," The Washington Times, November 3, 2025.
- "Thune Jam," Punchbowl News, 2026.
