Senate Republicans Use ‘Nuclear Option’ to Confirm Kimberly Guilfoyle and 47 Other Trump Nominees
The U.S.Senate Republicans recently took the “nuclear option” to expedite the confirmation of 48 nominees appointed by President Donald Trump, including Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece. This unprecedented move involved changing Senate rules to streamline approvals by allowing group votes on nominees, bypassing the traditional lengthy vetting and individual voting process. the change came after Senate Democrats refused to cooperate with the governance to confirm even non-controversial nominees through unanimous consent. historically, more than half of nominees received unanimous approval under previous administrations, but increased delays led Republicans to adopt this new tactic. The “nuclear option” refers to altering Senate procedures by majority vote without bipartisan agreement, a tactic previously used by both parties. Although this rule change speeds up confirmations, it does not affect Cabinet or judicial appointments, which still require individual votes. Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality and ex-wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, expressed gratitude for her appointment and praised Greece’s democratic legacy. Another notable nominee confirmed under the new rules was Calista Gingrich, wife of former house Speaker Newt Gingrich, appointed ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Tired of long-running, low-intensity warfare over President Donald Trump nominees, the Senate just went “nuclear.”
In an unprecedented vote on Friday, Senate Republicans approved a bloc of 48 Trump nominees — including conservative A-lister Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece.
And they changed the rules of the Senate to do it.
As The Hill reported last week, the Senate’s Republican majority voted Sept. 11 to streamline nomination approvals by allowing votes on nominees en masse.
The move, which was supported by no Democrats, eliminated time-consuming vetting and votes on individual nominees — after Senate Democrats deliberately declined to work with the administration to approve even non-controversial nominees by the process known as unanimous consent, The Hill reported.
“By contrast, more than 50 percent of nominees were approved by unanimous consent or voice vote during Trump’s first term and former President Biden’s tenure in office. Those figures hovered around 90 percent during former Presidents Obama and George W. Bush’s terms,” The Hill noted.
The behavior continues the Senate dawdling that delayed confirmation of Trump’s Cabinet picks after his historic win in November.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota was openly frustrated with Democratic delaying tactics.
“If the Senate had continued at the pace that we’ve been proceeding at through the month of July there would still be hundreds of empty desks in the executive branch on President Trump’s last day in office in 2029,” he said, according to Politico.
The term “nuclear option” describes when a party changes Senate rules by simple majority rule, rather than getting bipartisan buy-in, according to The Hill.
Democrats famously invoked the “nuclear option” in 2013 to get federal judges approved during then-President Barack Obama’s second term. Under then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrats voted to do away with the filibuster rule when it came to judicial appointments below the Supreme Court level.
In 2017, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Republican majority did away with the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, paving the way for the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority.
The new Senate approval rules neither apply to Cabinet positions nor to judicial nominations. Those must still be voted on an individual basis, according to The Hill.
Guilfoyle had the highest profile of the 48 nominees approved on Friday.
A one-time Fox News star personality who left the network in 2018, she was also involved in a romantic relationship with Donald Trump Jr. (That relationship ended before President Trump nominated Guilfoyle for the ambassador job.)
And before Fox News and Trump Jr., she was actually married to now-California Gov. Gavin Newsom, back when he was the mayor of San Francisco and preparing to make his biggest splash in politics by officiating at so-called same-sex weddings before they were legally recognized.
The two divorced in 2006, leaving Newsom free for other romantic pursuits.
Another big name benefiting from the Senate rules change is Calista Gingrich, wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Republican elder statesman whose 1994 “Contract with America” campaign took over the House, and revolutionized conservative politics, during the Bill Clinton years.
Gingrich was confirmed as ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein, a microscopic constitutional monarchy, with a population of about 40,000, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria.
Guilfoyle appears to have no ethnic connection to the nation of Greece. According to The List, a pop culture and politics news site, her parents are deceased, but her mother was Puerto Rican and her father was Irish.
But she praised Greece’s role as a model for modern democratic republics.
In a statement released Friday by the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Greece, Guilfoyle thanked Trump and Republican lawmakers for her new job.
“I am profoundly grateful to President Donald J. Trump and the United States Senate for their trust and confidence in me,” she said.
“It is the honor of my life to serve as the first female ambassador of the United States to the Hellenic Republic. Greece is the birthplace of democracy, liberty, and the rule of law — the very ideals that inspired our American Founders and continue to make America the greatest nation on Earth.”
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