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US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said President Donald Trump needs to do better next time to get bipartisan support for his nominees, instead of trying to “streamroll” the Senate.

In his parting shot as the Senate adjourned for a recess until September, Schumer said that contrary to Trump’s claim of being master in dealmaking, he said the president threw in the towel “in a fit of rage” after the Democrats refused to budge.

Schumer was responding to the president’s tirade on social media, in which he said Schumer can “GO TO HELL!”

Pointing to Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform that was flashed on screen, he said, said, “Trump tried to bully us, go around us, call us names, but he got nothing. He walked away with his tail between his legs.”

In his post, Trump said: “Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country,” Trump added.

Without a deal in hand, Republicans say they may try to change Senate rules when they return in September to speed up the pace of confirmations. Trump has been pressuring senators to move quickly as Democrats blocked more nominees than usual this year, denying any fast unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each one, a lengthy process that can take several days per nominee.

Schumer said that Trump attempted “to steamroll the Senate, to put in place his historically unqualified nominee, but Senate Democrats would not let him.  In a fit of rage, Trump threw in the towel, sent Republicans home, and was unable to do the basic work of negotiation. 
Is this the art of the deal, cajoul, stomp your feet, the give up?” Schumer said.

“We should be working together on legislation, to get things done to the American people. That’s the way to go, not changing the rules, because when they change the rule, they say ’only we are going to decide what’s good for the American people, and every time they do that the American people lose,” she added.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested a change Senate rules after negotiations with Schumer and Trump broke down. “I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.”
Schumer said a rules change would be a “huge mistake,” especially as Senate Republicans will need Democratic votes to pass spending bills and other legislation moving forward.
The latest standoff comes as Democrats and Republicans have gradually escalated their obstruction of the other party’s executive branch and judicial nominees over the last two decades, and as Senate leaders have incrementally changed Senate rules to speed up confirmations — and make them less bipartisan.
In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules for lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s judicial picks. In 2017, Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Trump has been pressuring Senate Republicans for weeks to cancel the August recess and grind through dozens of his nominations as Democrats have slowed the process. But Republicans hoped to make a deal with Democrats instead, and came close several times over the last few days as the two parties and the White House negotiated over moving a large tranche of nominees in exchange for reversing some of the Trump administration’s spending cuts on foreign aid, among other issues.
The Senate held a rare weekend session on Saturday as Republicans held votes on nominee after nominee and as the two parties tried to work out the final details of a deal. But it was clear that there would be no agreement when Trump attacked Schumer on social media Saturday evening and told Republicans to pack it up and go home.
Thune said afterward that there were “several different times” when the two sides thought they had a deal, but in the end “we didn’t close it out.”
It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t allowed at least some quick confirmations. Thune has already kept the Senate in session for more days, and with longer hours, this year to try and confirm as many of Trump’s nominees as possible.
But Democrats had little desire to give in without the spending cut reversals or some other incentive, even though they too were eager to skip town after several long months of work and bitter partisan fights over legislation.
“We have never seen nominees as flawed, as compromised, as unqualified as we have right now,” Schumer said.

(With AP)

WASHINGTON: US and Chinese officials may be able to settle many of their differences to reach a trade deal and avert punishing tariffs, but they remain far apart on one issue: the US demand that China stop purchasing oil from Iran and Russia.
“China will always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interests,” China’s Foreign Ministry posted on X on Wednesday following two days of trade negotiations in Stockholm, responding to the US threat of a 100 percent tariff.
“Coercion and pressuring will not achieve anything. China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests,” the ministry said.
The response is notable at a time when both Beijing and Washington are signaling optimism and goodwill about reaching a deal to keep commercial ties between the world’s two largest economies stable — after climbing down from sky-high tariffs and harsh trade restrictions. It underscores China’s confidence in playing hardball when dealing with the Trump administration, especially when trade is linked to its energy and foreign policies.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, emerging from the talks, told reporters that when it comes to Russian oil purchases, the “Chinese take their sovereignty very seriously.”
“We don’t want to impede on their sovereignty, so they would like to pay a 100 percent tariff,” Bessent said.
On Thursday, he called the Chinese “tough” negotiators, but said China’s pushback hasn’t stalled the negotiations. “I believe that we have the makings of a deal,” Bessent told CNBC.
Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the consultancy Teneo, said he doubts President Donald Trump would actually deploy the 100 percent tariff. “Realizing those threats would derail all the recent progress and probably kill any chance” for Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to announce a trade deal if they should meet this fall, Wildau said.
In seeking to restrict oil sales by Russia and Iran, a major source of revenue for both countries, the US wants to reduce the funding available for their militaries, as Moscow pursues its war against Ukraine and Tehran funds militant groups across the Middle East.
China plays hardball
When Trump unveiled a sweeping plan for tariffs on dozens of countries in April, China was the only country that retaliated. It refused to give in to US pressure.
“If the US is bent on imposing tariffs, China will fight to the end, and this is China’s consistent official stance,” said Tu Xinquan, director of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. WTO is the acronym for the World Trade Organization.
Negotiating tactics aside, China may also suspect that the US won’t follow through on its threat, questioning the importance Trump places on countering Russia, Tu said.
Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Beijing is unlikely to change its posture when it sees inconsistencies in US foreign policy goals toward Russia and Iran, whereas Beijing’s policy support for Moscow is consistent and clear. It’s also possible that Beijing may want to use it as another negotiating tool to extract more concessions from Trump, Kennedy said.
Danny Russel, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Beijing now sees itself as “the one holding the cards in its struggle with Washington.” He said Trump has made it clear he wants a “headline-grabbing deal” with Xi, “so rejecting a US demand to stop buying oil from Iran or Russia is probably not seen as a deal‑breaker, even if it generates friction and a delay.”
Continuing to buy oil from Russia preserves Xi’s “strategic solidarity” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and significantly reduces the economic costs for China, Russel said.
“Beijing simply can’t afford to walk away from the oil from Russia and Iran,” he said. “It’s too important a strategic energy supply, and Beijing is buying it at fire‑sale prices.”
China depends on oil from Russia and Iran
A 2024 report by the US Energy Information Administration estimates that roughly 80 percent to 90 percent of the oil exported by Iran went to China. The Chinese economy benefits from the more than 1 million barrels of Iranian oil it imports per day.
After the Iranian parliament floated a plan to shut down the Strait of Hormuz in June following US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, China spoke out against closing the critical oil transit route.
China also is an important customer for Russia, but is second to India in buying Russian seaborne crude oil exports. In April, Chinese imports of Russian oil rose 20 percent over the previous month to more than 1.3 million barrels per day, according to the KSE Institute, an analytical center at the Kyiv School of Economics.
This past week, Trump said the US will impose a 25 percent tariff on goods from India, plus an additional import tax because of India’s purchasing of Russian oil. India’s Foreign Ministry said Friday its relationship with Russia was “steady and time-tested.”
Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and a top policy adviser, said Trump has been clear that it is “not acceptable” for India to continue financing the Ukraine war by purchasing oil from Russia.
“People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil,” Miller said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” He said the US needs “to get real about dealing with the financing of this war.”
US Congress demands action

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, is pushing for sanctions and tariffs on Russia and its financial backers. In April, he introduced a bill that would authorize the president to impose tariffs as high as 500 percent not only on Russia but on any country that “knowingly” buys oil, uranium, natural gas, petroleum products or petrochemical products from Russia.
“The purpose of this legislation is to break the cycle of China — a communist dictatorship — buying oil below market price from Putin’s Russia, which empowers his war machine to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians,” Graham said in a June statement.
The bill has 84 co-sponsors in the 100-seat Senate. A corresponding House version has been introduced, also with bipartisan support.
Republicans say they stand ready to move on the sanctions legislation if Trump asks them to do so, but the bill is on hold for now.