President Trump blasted Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for his refusal to overturn the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition that allows home-state senators to veto nominees to district courts and U.S. attorneys’ offices. According to Fox News, Grassley said the practice is worth preserving for balance and state input. “I have a Constitutional Right to appoint Judges and U.S. Attorneys, but that RIGHT has been completely taken away from me in States that have just one Democrat United States Senator. This is because of an old and outdated ‘custom’ known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn, even though the Democrats, including Crooked Joe Biden (Twice!), have done so on numerous occasions,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Therefore, the only candidates that I can get confirmed for these most important positions are, believe it or not, Democrats! Chuck Grassley should allow strong Republican candidates to ascend to these very vital and powerful roles, and tell the Democrats, as they often tell us, to go to H***!” he added. Read the full post: Fox News has more: Blue slips are a long-standing tradition but are not a codified law, and constitutionally he is only allowed the power to nominate while the Senate ultimately approves or rejects that nomination. Trump’s frustration with the Senate’s blue slip practice isn’t new. In July, Trump called the tradition a “hoax” and a “scam” used by Democrats to block his nominees and demanded that Grassley stop supporting them. “Put simply, the president of the United States will never be permitted to appoint the person of his choice because of an ancient, and probably unconstitutional, ‘CUSTOM,’” his post said. In his first term, Trump was able to appoint 234 federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices and 54 appellate court judges. However, this term he has only confirmed five in the first seven months. Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba blamed Sens. Grassley and Tillis for blocking her confirmation. “In the state of New Jersey in June alone, we arrested over 300 criminals, illegals, and rapists. What is so bad about that work?” Habba said. “I would say to Sen. Tillis and Sen. Grassley: You are becoming part of the issue. You are becoming part of the antithesis of what we fought for four years,” she added. Check it out: BREAKING: Acting US Attorney Alina Habba just SLAMMED Thom Tillis and Chuck Grassley for blocking her confirmation "I would say to Sen. Tillis and Sen. Grassley: YOU are becoming part of the issue. YOU are becoming part of the antithesis of what we fought for FOUR YEARS!"… pic.twitter.com/T5diuwqElG — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 24, 2025 The Hill provided further info: Trump last month was forced to withdraw the nomination of his former defense lawyer, Alina Habba, to serve as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey after the state’s Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, opposed her nomination. Traditionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s chairs haven’t proceeded on federal district-level judicial and prosecutorial nominees unless both senators representing the state where those districts are located return blue-slip documents signing off on the nominees. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that Habba has been unlawfully serving as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor since July 24, when her 120-day period expired for her to serve as U.S. attorney in an interim capacity. In response, Habba took aim at Grassley, along with Booker and Kim, for abiding by the “blue slip” tradition. “No. 1, I was the nominee to become the U.S. attorney. And Cory Booker and Andy Kim — who I have never, to this day, spoken to in my life, despite my attempts to meet them — have truly, truly done us a disservice,” Habba said during an appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity.” “And frankly, same with Sen. Grassley by holding up a traditional blue slip, not a law, and not allowing a lot of the president’s picks to go through and be voted on by Senate,” she told host Sean Hannity. “I didn’t even get to that point.”