Fetterman: Trump Has 'Zero Leverage' Over Lame-Duck GOP
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- Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) publicly stated Trump has 'zero leverage' over lame-duck GOP senators as the president pushes to make acting AG Todd Blanche his permanent attorney general overseeing the DOJ.
- Thom Tillis (N.C.), Bill Cassidy (La.), and John Cornyn (Texas) — three outgoing Republicans — have each expressed skepticism about Blanche's nomination to permanently lead the Department of Justice.
- Trump is reportedly floating withdrawing Blanche's nomination entirely until after the elections as a workaround to bypass the GOP holdouts.
- Per the article, Fetterman is spotlighting broader 'weaknesses in President Trump's influence in Congress' that surface specifically during lame-duck stretches when outgoing senators face diminished electoral pressure to fall in line.
Why it matters: Three named GOP senators publicly breaking with Trump on a Cabinet-level nomination is a concrete erosion of his Senate arm-twisting powers on a specific vote. With Trump reportedly weighing whether to pull the Blanche nomination rather than force a floor fight, the episode shows how lame-duck status can turn into leverage against a sitting president instead of for him — a dynamic that reshapes every remaining confirmation battle of his term.
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