Senate Republicans confirmed 48 of President Donald Trump’s nominees with one vote on Thursday, utilizing a party-line rules change to expedite the confirmation process for midlevel executive branch positions and ambassadorships. This decision marks the latest in a series of procedural shifts aimed at streamlining the Senate’s handling of presidential nominations.
The first bloc of confirmed nominees included 48 Trump picks for midlevel executive branch roles and ambassadorships. Had they been processed individually, their confirmations would have consumed weeks of floor time. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who spearheaded the move, noted that continuing at the current pace would have left hundreds of executive branch roles unfilled by the end of Trump’s term in 2029.
Among those confirmed were Kimberly Guilfoyle, ex-wife of California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and a former romantic partner of Donald Trump Jr., and Callista Gingrich, wife of former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Brandon Williams, a former Republican House member from New York, was also confirmed to the undersecretary for nuclear security at the Department of Energy.
The party-line rules change, known as the “nuclear option” — a term for allowing group consideration of executive branch nominees — came after Republican frustration with the slow pace of confirmations due to Democratic resistance to expedited processing. Senate leaders and the White House engaged in negotiations over the summer about speeding up confirmations for a group of nominees in exchange for the administration’s agreement to unfreeze certain agency funds. Those talks dissolved, and Trump sent Republicans home for a lengthy August recess.
Senate Democrats have criticized the move, with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer labeling Trump’s nominees as “historically bad.” Democrats argue that the rules change represents the latest form of Republicans prioritizing Trump’s agenda over the constitutional checks on presidential power. Additionally, they suggest the change could benefit them in the future if they return to power.
The green light for group confirmations is the latest in a long series of procedural adjustments in the Senate. In 2013, then-Majority Leader Harry Reid lowered the confirmation threshold for executive branch nominees and judicial picks from 60 to 51. Republicans under Leader Mitch McConnell followed suit in 2017 for Supreme Court appointments and later curtailed debate time for most other nominees in 2019.
Senate Democrats, when they were in the majority under President Joe Biden, discussed changing the rules to allow for the confirmation of a limited number of nominees in groups. That plan never materialized, and the current rules change enacted by Republicans doesn’t limit the number of nominees that can be confirmed at once. Cabinet picks and judges, however, are exempt from this expedited process.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), in a recent floor speech, highlighted the importance of the Senate’s constitutional check on executive power, stating that the rules change effectively ceded that power to the executive. He emphasized that the Senate’s role in confirming nominees prevents a president from installing unqualified or corrupt individuals in positions of influence.