Trump demands Senate fire parliamentarian over ballroom security ruling
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President Donald Trump is asking Senate Republicans to remove the upper chamber’s rules arbiter after the ballroom’s security funding was rescinded.
Trump directed his ire Wednesday at Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who has a nonpartisan role determining what can and cannot be done in the budget reconciliation process.
Republicans are currently trying to finalize a $72 billion immigration enforcement funding package, but MacDonough over the weekend withdrew one of Trump’s biggest demands for $1 billion to pay for some of the security improvements at the massive White House ballroom project.
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President Donald Trump walks to speak with reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on May 8, 2026. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)
“Shockingly, Republicans kept the crucial ‘Parliamentarian’ position in the hands of Elizabeth MacDonough, a long-ago appointee of Barack Hussein Obama, and a ruthless madman known as Senator Harry Reid, who ruled the Senate with an ‘iron fist’ on behalf of the Dumocrats,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“He has been brutal to the Republicans over the years, but not to the Dumocrats – So why hasn’t he been replaced? There are plenty of fair people qualified for this vital job,” he continued.
But that’s not a move Republicans are willing to make, especially in retaliation for cutting ballroom security funding. Earlier this week, Trump privately pushed Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D., to remove MacDonough.
Thune said he had not had any discussions about removing MacDonough, but noted that the parliamentarian’s anger flared “every time there was a compromise.”
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“There are always people who are unhappy with some of the decisions that are made, and that’s the nature of the beast. So, you know, we’re going to work through this process and do our best to implement the things that we want, which is later this week,” Thune said.
Still, Republicans continue to haggle over whether to include the security fund. The bulk of the money (about $600 million) would go to the Secret Service, with $220 million going toward improving security for the East Wing Modernization project.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, whose part of the package includes controversial funding, noted that the parliamentarian did not just rule against Republicans during reconciliation.
“I think the best answer to this is that the parliamentarian has shown the Biden administration with their recommendations and compromises that they are not getting everything they want,” Grassley said.
Like Thune, other Republicans realized that compromise was difficult but not worth firing MacDonough.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) speaks with reporters as he heads to the Senate chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 12, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“For what,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said when asked if MacDonough should go. “Is there a DWI or something?”
This also isn’t the first time Republicans have called for MacDonough to be fired. Last year, after MacDonough removed provisions that would have led to major cuts in Medicaid spending, a handful of members of the GOP called for his replacement.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital at the time that there was already a precedent to do so.
“In 2001, Majority Leader Trent Lott fired the Senate parliamentarian during reconciliation,” Marshall said.
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Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital that the real root cause of the problem is the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Republicans chose the reconciliation route because they could not muster enough votes from Senate Democrats to clear the threshold and fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without making major concessions on funding immigration enforcement.
“We’re as likely to end the filibuster as we are to get rid of the parliament, so you’d better pressure Republicans to address the root cause, which is the 60-vote threshold,” Johnson said.
