President Donald Trump again called for an end to the filibuster and said there will be no deal with Democrats on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”).
In several tweets Sunday morning, Trump threatened to dismantle the North American Free Trade Agreement which he called Mexico’s “cash cow” if the country doesn’t reduce the flow of immigrants coming across the southern US border. This isn’t the first time Trump has called for a change to Senate rules by invoking the “nuclear option,” which would permit a simple majority to move forward on a measure. Last May, he called for Congress to move to a simple majority to pass health care and tax reform bills. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has emphatically stated he is against changing senate rules to initiate a nuclear option for the legislative filibuster. Current Senate rules mandate that 60 senators who representing three-fifths of the 100-member Senate must agree in order to end the debate and move forward to a vote on a measure or piece of legislation, a process known as invoking cloture.
