Democrats are blaming Republican congressional leadership for the current impasse and federal government shutdown, and they are not alone. Polls indicate most Americans are placing the shutdown blame on the GOP — specifically House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) — while some congressional Republicans are also dissatisfied with the GOP’s strategy.
The discontent is especially notable with prominent MAGA voices like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) piling on, excoriating Johnson and Thune and blaming her own party’s leadership for the shutdown.
Hammering Johnson for keeping the House out of session, Greene said last week: “I have no respect for the House not being in session and no respect for leadership not calling us back to work.”
The Congresswoman also said: “Thune needs to use the nuclear option and reopen the government,” meaning the Majority Leader should break the filibuster and exercise the slim Senate majority to effect the re-opening, rather than trying to achieve an elusive 60-vote count.
ON THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE CALL — @mtgreenee just said that she is tired of people listening to the White House political staff.
MTG said that Thune needs to use the nuclear option and reopen the government. (In other words, abolish the filibuster and pass a funding…
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 28, 2025
In the push to break the filibuster, Greene was joined recently by President Trump, who last week urged the GOP leadership in a social media post to “terminate the filibuster, not just for the shutdown, but for everything else.”
Yet unlike most actions Trump has urged a compliant Congress to undertake, Trump’s filibuster termination suggestion hasn’t become the GOP action plan.
Adding to this rarity, Republicans publicly refuted the President’s idea, with a spokesman for Thune saying in response: “Leader Thune’s position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged.” Other Republicans followed in resisting Trump’s call, citing future legislative perils that filibuster termination could portend.
(Trump also wrote, to eliminate any ambiguity about his position: “It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!”)
Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA), an unwavering Trump antagonist, interpreted Thune’s defiance as a sign of Trump’s political weakness, writing that “Thune defying Trump’s order to nuke the filibuster shows how weak Trump has become.”
Thune defying Trump’s order to nuke the filibuster shows how weak Trump has become. He chickens out on tariffs and now is getting rolled by his own Senate.
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) November 3, 2025
Trump’s poll numbers and approval ratings are poor, yet Congress has generally proceeded as if the President’s initiatives carry the weight of a powerful political mandate — something the administration has claimed since its election victory.
Swalwell sees the latest “defiance” as a sign that the unpopular polling is starting to impact GOP elected officials, whose constituents are increasingly not in favor of what the GOP has signed on for in Trump 2.0.
Greene is the best known example, splitting with her party to support the release of the Epstein files, to support the extension of ACA tax subsidies until the GOP comes up with a better plan, and in expressing regret for her “yes” vote on Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which she said she would have voted against had she read its AI sections more thoroughly.