President Donald Trump pressed Senate Majority Leader John Thune to fire the Senate parliamentarian after she ruled Republicans could not include funding for the president’s ballroom in a budget bill, two sources familiar with the request told NOTUS.
The president called the South Dakota Republican on Monday to express his frustrations with the decision, according to a third source. The call between Trump and Thune was first reported by Semafor.
While Trump has promised to build the ballroom with private donations, Republicans are looking to get $1 billion in Secret Service funding into their filibuster-proof legislation. About $220 million is aimed specifically at the East Wing project.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the nonpartisan parliamentarian who gives determinations on the rules of the Senate, determined Saturday that the provision, as written, did not pass the so-called Byrd Rule, which prevents non-budget items from passing with a simple majority.
Republicans said they would revise the proposal to try to get the ballroom into the bill.
Thune declined to comment on whether the president asked him to oust MacDonough, saying he does not discuss their private conversations. He also said he would not do it.
“No,” Thune told NOTUS when asked if he would entertain that idea of firing MacDonough. “We’re going through a process that we go through every time we have a reconciliation bill and the people on both sides are mad at the parliamentarian. That’s been true.”
A White House official told NOTUS, “We don’t comment on private conversations that may or may not have happened.”
MacDonough did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republicans are hoping to get favorable rulings from MacDonough in the coming days that would allow them to move ahead with votes on the package, which includes $72 billion for Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“The discussions with the parliamentarian [are] a back and forth. We, like on many issues, have multiple plans and contingencies for how she may or may not rule,” Thune told reporters earlier in the day. “It’s a give and take and you take what she suggests or take her opinions and then try and come up with a different way of getting it done.”
Last year, when Republicans were trying to get the president’s tax bill over the line through the same process, known as reconciliation, Trump allies called on Thune to fire MacDonough after she initially stripped out several Medicaid provisions.
Thune was steadfast then as well: He told reporters at the time he would not overrule or fire MacDonough.
