MAGA senator plots path to 'ditch' practice Trump hates against will of GOP

Although the U.S. Senate's GOP majority has confirmed many of President Donald Trump's nominees — even when Senate Democrats were united against them — Trump is frustrated over a practice that allows Democrats to block some of his picks for the federal judiciary. And according to Politico reporters Jordain Carney and Chris Marquette, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) may be "in a position to do something about it."

"Utah Sen. Mike Lee is poised to chair the Judiciary Committee should Republicans manage to keep control of the Senate in the midterms," Carney and Marquette explain in Politico. "That would give the MAGA stalwart the power to decide the fate of the 'blue slip,' which lets senators block any home-state district court judge, federal marshal or U.S. attorney nomination they oppose."

But according to the Politico reporters, taking that approach "risks pitting Lee against his Senate GOP colleagues, many of whom support the status quo."

Lee, Carney and Marquette report, doesn't "expect to eliminate blue slips" altogether but "left the door open to changing how the tradition is enforced."

The Utah senator told Politico, "There is no appetite to just get rid of them. The blue slip itself has had a lot of evolution, and it's almost never static — though it doesn’t mean that everything about the blue slip procedure will always be the same."

Meanwhile, Trump himself, according to Carney and Marquette, "has a simpler view of the matter — demanding Senate Republicans completely ditch the blue slip, which he views as an intolerable fetter on his power to install federal judges." And that view puts him at odds with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and others.

"Current Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has repeatedly fended off Trump's calls to end the practice, explaining that most of his fellow senators have no interest in giving up leverage in who gets home-state appointments," Carney and Marquette note. "Asked how the White House would want Lee to handle blue slips, a spokesperson pointed back to several of the president's comments over the past year, including an October 2025 Truth Social post where he called it an 'old and ridiculous custom.' Trump targeted Grassley directly last December, saying that it was 'shocking' that he would allow 'this scam to continue.'"

Outgoing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), interviewed by Politico, said of Lee, "I think, you know, he's a traditionalist, and I think he'll honor the blue slip … Senators have few prerogatives and tools, and that's one of them."