Trump wanted no judges confirmed in the 2024 lame duck. Now he wants 25 before January

On Nov. 10, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump took to his Truth Social site with a complaint. Democrats, who were about to lose their Senate majority, were trying to confirm President Joe Biden's last judicial nominees. Trump wrote that "The Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership." ¹

Nine days later he went further and demanded a full stop on confirmations until he took office ¹.

No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!

Two years later, the roles have flipped. Republicans lost the Senate in the Nov. 3 midterms, and Democrats will hold at least 54 seats starting Jan. 3 ⁴. Trump and Senate Republicans are now doing exactly what they objected to in 2024: racing to confirm as many judges as they can before the new majority takes over ³.

What they said then

In November 2024, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota was about to become Senate Republican leader. He told ABC News, "If Sen. Schumer thought Senate Republicans would just roll over," he was wrong. Thune said Republicans would not go along in "the final weeks of the Democrat majority." ²

From Channel GOP60 Minutes presses Trump on missing health planDonald Trump · 30K plays · captioned, with the source named

Republicans followed through. On Nov. 18, 2024, they forced Democrats to hold slow, time-consuming procedural votes, and steps that usually take minutes took hours. Thune took credit for the move ². ABC News called it a reversal for Thune. In a Nov. 18, 2020, floor speech, after Trump lost re-election, he had said "confirming good judges is one of our most important responsibilities as senators." ²

To be fair to the record, Democrats were open about what they were doing in 2024. Then-Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois said the Senate "must confirm every one of these highly qualified, diverse nominees before the sun sets on the 118th Congress." ⁷ Confirming judges in a lame-duck session (the weeks between an election and the new Congress) is legal. The issue is that Republican leaders called it unacceptable when Democrats did it.

What they say now

On Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, exactly two years after his post accusing Democrats of trying to ram their judges through, Trump named three more nominees for federal courts in Texas and South Carolina ¹⁰. That same day, Senate Republicans were busy with their own leadership fight before re-electing Thune as their leader ⁸. Fox News reported that Sen. Rick Scott of Florida wanted Republicans to commit to "ramming through judicial nominees" during the lame duck ⁸.

Trump has also called for the Senate to confirm his entire backlog, according to The Washington Sun ³.

Very important for the U.S. Senate to confirm all of our pending 161 Nominations, including 25 Federal Judges.

The Judiciary Committee is speeding up to make that happen. On Nov. 10, the committee sent four judicial nominees to the full Senate, scheduled votes on six more and held a hearing on four others ³. Its chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, scheduled hearings on back-to-back weeks over Democratic objections ⁴. One nominee, Texas Supreme Court Justice James Sullivan, is getting a hearing two weeks after his paperwork arrived. The committee's longstanding practice is to wait 28 days ⁹. Sullivan lost his own retention election for the Texas court this month ⁹.

Grassley made his case in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that his committee reposted on Nov. 10 ⁵.

The stakes are far too high for Republicans to take their feet off the gas now.

The numbers

Trump has had 56 lifetime judges confirmed since returning to office, on top of 234 in his first term, Reuters reported ⁴. Grassley says the total will top 300 across both terms by the end of the year ⁵. The legal news site Balls and Strikes, which is critical of the push, counts 23 nominees still pending and only about 30 days left for the Senate to meet ⁶. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, told The Washington Sun that confirming every remaining nominee is "going to be very hard." ³

The 2024 slowdown also paid off for Republicans. Democrats cut a deal that left three appeals court seats open for Trump to fill ⁶.

What Democrats say

Democrats say the rush is meant to fill Texas judgeships before Sen.-elect James Talarico, a Democrat, is sworn in on Jan. 3 ³. Under a Senate custom called the "blue slip," home-state senators can block district court nominees from their state. That means filling seats in Texas and South Carolina could require a Democratic senator's support for years ¹⁰.

The defeat of the Republicans in Texas has created a scramble for lifetime appointments to the federal bench

A spokesperson for Durbin, now the committee's top Democrat, said the faster schedule "establishes yet another new precedent that will allow Democrats to process nominees more quickly" once they are in charge ⁹. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who is set to chair the Judiciary Committee in January, said, "There needs to be accountability for years of Republican bad behavior." ⁴

That matters because federal judges serve for life. The judges confirmed in the next few weeks will be hearing cases on health care, Social Security, voting and government power long after this Congress is gone. In 2024, Republican leaders said a party that had lost an election should not fill those seats on its way out. In 2026, they are the party on its way out.

The Record

1. Nov 18, 2020After Trump lost re-election, Thune said on the Senate floor that confirming good judges is one of senators' most important responsibilities ².
2. Nov 10, 2024Trump posted that Democrats were trying to 'ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership' ¹.
3. Nov 19, 2024Trump demanded 'No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!' as Thune said Republicans would not 'roll over' ¹².
4. Nov 6, 2026Reuters reports Grassley scheduled back-to-back judicial hearings over Democratic objections after Republicans lost the Senate ⁴.
5. Nov 10, 2026Trump names three new judicial nominees and urges the Senate to confirm 25 federal judges; Thune is re-elected GOP leader ³⁸¹⁰.

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<h2>Trump wanted no judges confirmed in the 2024 lame duck. Now he wants 25 before January</h2> <p><em>By The GOP Files Receipts Desk. This article first appeared on <a href="https://thegopfiles.com/story/trump-wanted-no-judges-confirmed-in-the-2024-lame-duck-now-he-wants-25-before-january">The GOP Files</a> on Wednesday, November 11, 2026.</em></p> <p>On Nov. 10, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump took to his Truth Social site with a complaint. Democrats, who were about to lose their Senate majority, were trying to confirm President Joe Biden&#39;s last judicial nominees. Trump wrote that &quot;The Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership.&quot;</p> <p>Nine days later he went further and demanded a full stop on confirmations until he took office .</p> <blockquote><p>No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!</p><p>&mdash; Donald Trump, then President-elect, Republican</p></blockquote> <p>Two years later, the roles have flipped. Republicans lost the Senate in the Nov. 3 midterms, and Democrats will hold at least 54 seats starting Jan. 3 . Trump and Senate Republicans are now doing exactly what they objected to in 2024: racing to confirm as many judges as they can before the new majority takes over .</p> <h2>What they said then</h2> <p>In November 2024, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota was about to become Senate Republican leader. He told ABC News, &quot;If Sen. Schumer thought Senate Republicans would just roll over,&quot; he was wrong. Thune said Republicans would not go along in &quot;the final weeks of the Democrat majority.&quot;</p> <p>Republicans followed through. On Nov. 18, 2024, they forced Democrats to hold slow, time-consuming procedural votes, and steps that usually take minutes took hours. Thune took credit for the move . ABC News called it a reversal for Thune. In a Nov. 18, 2020, floor speech, after Trump lost re-election, he had said &quot;confirming good judges is one of our most important responsibilities as senators.&quot;</p> <p>To be fair to the record, Democrats were open about what they were doing in 2024. Then-Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois said the Senate &quot;must confirm every one of these highly qualified, diverse nominees before the sun sets on the 118th Congress.&quot; Confirming judges in a lame-duck session (the weeks between an election and the new Congress) is legal. The issue is that Republican leaders called it unacceptable when Democrats did it.</p> <h2>What they say now</h2> <p>On Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, exactly two years after his post accusing Democrats of trying to ram their judges through, Trump named three more nominees for federal courts in Texas and South Carolina . That same day, Senate Republicans were busy with their own leadership fight before re-electing Thune as their leader . Fox News reported that Sen. Rick Scott of Florida wanted Republicans to commit to &quot;ramming through judicial nominees&quot; during the lame duck .</p> <p>Trump has also called for the Senate to confirm his entire backlog, according to The Washington Sun .</p> <blockquote><p>Very important for the U.S. Senate to confirm all of our pending 161 Nominations, including 25 Federal Judges.</p><p>&mdash; Donald Trump, President, Republican</p></blockquote> <p>The Judiciary Committee is speeding up to make that happen. On Nov. 10, the committee sent four judicial nominees to the full Senate, scheduled votes on six more and held a hearing on four others . Its chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, scheduled hearings on back-to-back weeks over Democratic objections . One nominee, Texas Supreme Court Justice James Sullivan, is getting a hearing two weeks after his paperwork arrived. The committee&#39;s longstanding practice is to wait 28 days . Sullivan lost his own retention election for the Texas court this month .</p> <p>Grassley made his case in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that his committee reposted on Nov. 10 .</p> <blockquote><p>The stakes are far too high for Republicans to take their feet off the gas now.</p><p>&mdash; Chuck Grassley, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, R-Iowa</p></blockquote> <h2>The numbers</h2> <p>Trump has had 56 lifetime judges confirmed since returning to office, on top of 234 in his first term, Reuters reported . Grassley says the total will top 300 across both terms by the end of the year . The legal news site Balls and Strikes, which is critical of the push, counts 23 nominees still pending and only about 30 days left for the Senate to meet . Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, told The Washington Sun that confirming every remaining nominee is &quot;going to be very hard.&quot;</p> <p>The 2024 slowdown also paid off for Republicans. Democrats cut a deal that left three appeals court seats open for Trump to fill .</p> <h2>What Democrats say</h2> <p>Democrats say the rush is meant to fill Texas judgeships before Sen.-elect James Talarico, a Democrat, is sworn in on Jan. 3 . Under a Senate custom called the &quot;blue slip,&quot; home-state senators can block district court nominees from their state. That means filling seats in Texas and South Carolina could require a Democratic senator&#39;s support for years .</p> <blockquote><p>The defeat of the Republicans in Texas has created a scramble for lifetime appointments to the federal bench</p><p>&mdash; Dick Durbin, Ranking member, Senate Judiciary Committee, D-Ill.</p></blockquote> <p>A spokesperson for Durbin, now the committee&#39;s top Democrat, said the faster schedule &quot;establishes yet another new precedent that will allow Democrats to process nominees more quickly&quot; once they are in charge . Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who is set to chair the Judiciary Committee in January, said, &quot;There needs to be accountability for years of Republican bad behavior.&quot;</p> <p>That matters because federal judges serve for life. The judges confirmed in the next few weeks will be hearing cases on health care, Social Security, voting and government power long after this Congress is gone. In 2024, Republican leaders said a party that had lost an election should not fill those seats on its way out. In 2026, they are the party on its way out.</p> <p><em>Read the original, with every source linked, at <a href="https://thegopfiles.com/story/trump-wanted-no-judges-confirmed-in-the-2024-lame-duck-now-he-wants-25-before-january">thegopfiles.com</a>. Republished under The GOP Files' <a href="https://thegopfiles.com/republish">free republishing terms</a>.</em></p> <img src="https://thegopfiles.com/api/rp/trump-wanted-no-judges-confirmed-in-the-2024-lame-duck-now-he-wants-25-before-january.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border:0;width:1px;height:1px">

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Sources

1. CNBC via NBC 6 South Florida, “Trump urges Senate GOP to block Biden's last judicial nominees” (2024-11-19). nbcmiami.com/news/business/money-report/trump-urges-senate-g
2. ABC News via ABC13, “In reversal, Thune seeks to slow down Biden's judicial nominees” (2024-11-19). abc13.com/post/judicial-nominees-reversal-john-thune-seeks-s
3. The Washington Sun, “Trump And Republicans Start Racing To Confirm Judges” (2026-11-10). washingtonsun.com/congress/trump-republicans-racing-judges
4. Reuters via Minnesota Lawyer, “Midterms cripple Trump's push to reshape courts” (2026-11-06). minnlawyer.com/2026/11/06/senate-control-trump-judicial-appo
5. Senate Judiciary Committee, “ICYMI: Grassley in Wall Street Journal: Senate Republicans Must Advance and Confirm as Many Pending Judges as Possible” (2026-11-10). judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/icymi-grassley-in-wa
6. Balls and Strikes, “Senate Republicans Are Sprinting to Confirm Trump Judges While They Still Can” (2026-11-09). ballsandstrikes.org/nominations/trump-judicial-nominations-l
7. Office of Sen. Dick Durbin, “Durbin: We Must Confirm Every Possible Federal Judge In The Lame Duck Session” (2024-11-13). durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-we-must-con
8. Fox News, “Senate GOP rebellion fizzles as Thune keeps power despite historic midterm massacre” (2026-11-10). foxnews.com/politics/senate-gop-rebellion-fizzles-thune-keep
9. Nomination Notes, “Republicans are set to violate more norms in pursuit of confirming Trump's judicial nominees” (2026-11-06). nominationnotes.substack.com/p/republicans-are-set-to-violat
10. Just the News, “Trump nominates 3 more federal judges as Senate mulls lame duck plans” (2026-11-10). justthenews.com/government/courts-law/trump-nominates-3-more

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