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President Trump, furious over government vacancies he said were hindering his administration’s coronavirus response, threatened on Wednesday to invoke a never-before-used presidential power to adjourn Congress so he could fill the positions temporarily himself. The top Senate Republican, Senator Mitch McConnell, quickly let it be known that would not happen. Days after insisting he had “total” authority to supersede governors’ decisions about whether to reopen their states, Mr. Trump floated the unprecedented step during a White House news conference as he lashed out at Democrats for opposing his nominees. (Fandos, 4/15)

The president acknowledged that the effort would likely result in a legal challenge. “We’ll see who wins,” he said. While Mr. Trump complained about stalled nominees, he hasn’t announced nominees for 150 of the 749 key positions requiring Senate confirmation that are tracked in a database maintained by The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service. In all, the Senate has confirmed 510 nominees tracked by the groups. The president has argued that some positions aren’t necessary and that he isn’t announcing nominees for every job because he thinks they’ll just get held up in the Senate. (Restuccia and Leary, 4/15)

In recent years, Congress has refused to fully adjourn during most breaks precisely to prevent the president from making recess appointments. Little or no business is conducted in such “pro-forma sessions,” but they give members of both chambers of Congress the chance to go back home without going into recess. It’s a process lawmakers also employed to thwart President Barack Obama’s nominees. (Freking and Mascaro, 4/16)

“The current practice of leaving town, while conducting phony pro forma sessions, is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis,” an angry Trump told reporters at his daily White House briefing on the coronavirus crisis. “It is a scam that they do. It’s a scam and everyone knows it, and it’s been that way for a long time,” Trump said. (Holland and Zengerle, 4/15)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spoke to Trump on Wednesday, but signaled that he wasn’t on board with the president’s plan. Any attempt to formally adjourn the Senate would require all 100 senators traveling back to Washington for such a vote — which McConnell and Senate leaders have deemed an unsafe move at this point. “The leader pledged to find ways to confirm nominees considered mission-critical to the covid-19 pandemic, but under Senate rules that will take consent from Leader Schumer,” said a McConnell spokesman, referring to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). (Itkowitz and DeBonis, 4/15)