There are few things President Donald Trump hates to hear more than “no.” So imagine his outrage when he learned that Senate Republicans’ long-awaited budget bill would no longer include money for his White House ballroom project. The $1 billion in Secret Service funding, including $200 million specifically for the ballroom, had to be removed after a ruling that it failed to comply with Senate rules.
The ruling on the funding didn’t come from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., or any other elected member of Congress. It came from Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian. Trump has demanded that Thune fire MacDonough for standing in his way — but her job isn’t at risk. For the moment, at least, MacDonough may be the most powerful bureaucrat in Washington that Trump can’t touch.
For the moment, at least, MacDonough may be the most powerful bureaucrat in Washington that Trump can’t touch.
After weeks of internal debate, Senate Republicans decided to keep the budget reconciliation bill narrowly focused on funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The money would backfill a gap left in this year’s Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to appease Democrats opposed to Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown.
Reconciliation bills have the benefit of not being subject to the filibuster or the associated 60-vote threshold. But because of how much reconciliation bills short-circuit the normal legislative process, the Senate has written guidelines into the budget law governing them. In short, anything packed inside must deal with federal spending, adjusting the amount of money the government takes in as revenue or spends as outlays. There are also provisions ensuring that spending bills match up with the instructions in the budget framework that kicks off the reconciliation process, including which committee will be filling in the details the framework leaves blank.
In making sure that nothing in the bill goes against those rules, the bill is presented to the parliamentarian. MacDonough goes through the text with a metaphorical red pen to pick out anything that violates the so-called Byrd rule — named for former senator Robert Byrd — that governs the budget reconciliation process.
In this case, MacDonough ruled that the White House ballroom project funding tucked into the Judiciary Committee’s part of the bill goes beyond the committee’s jurisdiction. If the funding remained in the bill, it could be taken out on the floor via a point of order and would be subject to the 60-vote threshold to be placed back in.
Just because MacDonough ruled out the funding did not mean it was doomed. It’s not unprecedented for provisions to be revised after the parliamentarian’s review and later reincluded in a reconciliation bill. Thune and other Senate GOP leaders initially said they would work to revamp the language to produce something viable — but it wouldn’t be surprising if they didn’t work too hard. The ballroom request put Republicans in a tough spot, placing the onus on them to sign off on a controversial project Trump repeatedly promised wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. In the end, GOP senators determined it was more important to move forward on immigration enforcement without the ballroom funding.
Trump was, of course, furious. He reportedly called Thune and demanded that MacDonough be fired. When Thune seemed cool to the idea, Trump then turned to Truth Social, blasting her as someone who “has been brutal to Republicans, but not so to the Dumocrats — So why has she not been replaced?” He added that Democrats “cheat, lie, and steal, especially when it comes to Votes in Elections, but stick together, whereas the Republicans allow the Elizabeth MacDonoughs of the World to stay in power, and brutalize us.”
Trump’s demand that she be fired also almost certainly will go unheeded — though not because it’s unprecedented.
It’s true that MacDonough has ruled against Republicans’ wishes before. Some GOP lawmakers called for her firing over related rulings she made last year on the One Big Beautiful Bill, which was passed through reconciliation. But MacDonough has given Democrats plenty of headaches over the years. Most crucially, in 2021, she refused to allow Senate Democrats to raise the minimum wage to $15 as part of the American Rescue Plan. A provision that would have provided a pathway to citizenship was also deemed out of order for the stimulus bill. While some Democrats griped about the rulings, MacDonough remained in place.
Trump’s demand that she be fired also almost certainly will go unheeded — though not because it’s unprecedented. In 1987, Senate Democrats dismissed parliamentarian Robert Dove after winning control of the chamber. When Republicans retook the Senate in 1995, they reinstated Dove — only to dismiss him six years later after rulings that hurt Republican efforts to slash taxes.
MacDonough will likely keep her job because she has remained popular overall with senators during her time in the role, despite having to deliver bad news to both sides. More importantly, Thune has stuck with her even as Trump has railed against her judgements. Without Thune’s backing, there’s no way for Trump to force MacDonough from her perch at the front of the Senate chamber. The Senate could also overrule her rulings rather than replacing her outright, but doing so would open the door to ending the filibuster altogether, something most GOP senators oppose.
It’s a rarity in this day and age for anyone in Washington to be considered truly neutral — but MacDonough seems to fit the bill. Even during times when she has blocked policies that would help millions of Americans, she has done so without malice or favor. MacDonough earned Trump’s ire by being his exact opposite, keeping the Senate honest with itself and preventing senators from discarding their own rules when convenient.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House.