Thune: Trump's targeting of Senate parliamentarian is 'concerning'

Source: The Hill

05/20/26 1:36 PM ET


Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said that President Trump’s harsh attacks on Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough are “concerning” if those salvos could make the Senate rules-keeper a political target and pose a security risk. Thune dismissed Trump’s call for Senate Republicans to fire the parliamentarian — whom then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appointed in 2012 — but acknowledged that he’s not oblivious to the possibility that MacDonough could become a target.

“I didn’t read it, so I need to look at it,” Thune said of Trump’s incendiary claim in a Truth Social post that the parliamentarian “has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats.”. “Obviously, it’s concerning when anybody gets targeted like that. But it’s, I guess, his opinion,” he said of Trump’s attacks on MacDonough. “We’ll make sure everybody’s got security around here.”

MacDonough over the weekend ruled security funding for a new White House ballroom did not meet the stringent requirements to be included in the budget reconciliation package Republicans are trying to pass this week.

Thune on Wednesday warned that firing the parliamentarian would make it even tougher to get enough Republican votes to pass that funding, as some GOP senators would be even less likely to support the earmark if it appeared that leaders were trying to manipulate the enforcement of the Senate rules. “That would create even more vote issues here if we were to try to do something like that,” he said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5887575-thune-mcdonough-trump-ballroom-funding/