Trump Pressures GOP to Scrap Senate 'Blue Slip' Nominee Tradition

President Donald Trump is escalating his push to end the Senate’s century‑old 'blue slip' tradition, blasting Republican Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley and others for keeping a practice he says blocks his U.S. attorney and judicial picks. The custom lets home‑state senators effectively veto nominees by withholding a blue‑paper approval, and was used last year to stop two Trump‑favored U.S. attorney choices, Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan, despite his public demand that Republicans 'get rid of blue slips.' Grassley and most senators in both parties are resisting, arguing the practice protects minority rights and home‑state input even as the GOP has pushed through 36 U.S. attorneys and 26 judges, including nominees backed by Democratic senators in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan and Minnesota. The piece notes that Republicans also used blue slips in the Biden years to hold seats open for Trump to fill and that, at the moment, no judicial nominee is actually being blocked by an outstanding blue slip, undercutting Trump’s claim that the system has frozen his picks. The fight spotlights a deeper power struggle between the White House and a closely divided Senate over how much control presidents should have in remaking the federal bench and U.S. attorney corps.