President Donald Trump beseeched Republican senators to end the filibuster on Wednesday, hot on the heels of significant losses in Tuesday night’s 2025 elections.
Trump has spent the last week-plus pressuring Republicans to abolish the filibuster to end the government shutdown, now the longest in history, through a simple majority vote in the Senate.
The president opened his remarks by conceding that, though Democrats were expected to win the major races on Tuesday, the results were not “good for Republicans.”
“I’m not sure it was good for anybody,” he told the room. “But we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot, and we’re going to talk about that.”
Trump, citing unnamed pollsters, claimed that “the shutdown was a bigger factor, negative, for the Republicans, and that was a big factor” before adding that “they say that I wasn’t on the ballot was the biggest factor.”
“But I don’t know about that, but I was honored that they said that,” the president continued before telling the gathered group of lawmakers that it was time to end the filibuster.
The president’s comments about not being on the ballot may be an early warning sign that Republicans could struggle in the midterm elections and beyond. Trump will not be on the ballot ever again.
Trump suggested that axing the filibuster would allow Republicans to pass nationwide voter ID laws, and warned that if Democrats retake power and abolish the rule themselves, they would pack the Supreme Court and make Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico the 51st and 52nd states.
“They pick up two states, they pick up four senators, OK, you think you have problems. They’re going to do all of the things,” he continued. “They’re going to pick up electoral votes. It’s going to be a very, very bad situation, and it’s done as soon as they attain power. Now, if we do what I’m saying, they’ll never — they’ll most likely never attain power because we will have passed every single thing that you can imagine that it’s good and all good for the country.”
Ultimately, given opposition to his proposal from both Republican leadership and rank-and-file lawmakers, Trump conceded that the Senate would probably not go for his pitch.
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“It’s possible you’re not going to do that, and I’m going to go by your wishes,” he said. “You’re very smart people. We’re good friends, but I think it’s a tremendous mistake. Really, it would be a tragic mistake.”
Trump’s remarks can be seen in full below.