Trump Asks Senate to Cancel Summer Break to Confirm His Nominees

President Donald Trump said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) should cancel the Senate’s summer break and long weekends in order to confirm Trump’s nominees, which include some controversial picks, more quickly in a Truth Social post Saturday. 

“Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed,” Trump wrote. “We need them badly!!!”

The Senate is expected to go on recess from Aug. 4 to Sept. 1. It is one of 14 breaks or long weekends on the 2025 calendar. Their most recent break was June 30 to July 4, and then there is another break toward the end of September. Even when the Senate is in session, lawmakers are generally only in their Capitol Hill offices a few days a week, with ample time to travel back home. 

Senators are scheduled to vote on six nominations on Monday, including Bradley Hansell for under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, and John Hurley for under secretary for terrorism and financial crimes. The Senate is also slated for a major vote on a funding bill.

The Senate could soon vote on Emil Bove, a controversial nominee to become a judge on a federal appeals court. He served as one of Trump’s personal lawyers before taking a role at the Justice Department. 

A whistleblower said in June that Bove told lawyers at the Justice Department they “would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such court order” that would block Trump from sending immigrants to prison in El Salvador. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced his nomination earlier this week, prompting Democrats to walk out. 

“I have respect for you Mr. Chairman, but this is outrageous, this is unacceptable, this is wrong,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). “This is an abuse of power. It is an undermining of the wellbeing and the integrity of this Senate.”

More than 75 former judges asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Bove’s nomination.

“Mr. Bove’s egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position,” the group wrote.

Another controversial nominee is former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who is up for the role of U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C. Trump’s first choice for the position was Republican lawyer Ed Martin, but he dropped the bid amid opposition. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee also voted to advance Pirro’s nomination. 

Brian Christine, Trump’s nominee for assistant health and human services secretary, is an Alabama urologist who said the issue of teen pregnancy should be left to “the purview of the parents.”

He also said that “society works best when men and women are fulfilling their roles, when they are doing what they’re supposed to do, raising children and propagating the species.” 

Dozens of people in Malaysia protested the possibility of “alpha male” influencer Nick Adams becoming U.S. ambassador to the country over his posts criticizing Islam and supporting the Israeli military.

Another nomination drawing controversy is that of law professor Jennifer Mascott, Trump’s nominee for a federal appeals court seat in Delaware. She is not licensed to practice law in the state.