Senate Confirms 88 of Trump’s Nominees At Once After Rule Change

The U.S. Senate delivered another major victory for President Donald J. Trump’s ongoing effort to restore constitutional order to the federal judiciary, confirming two North Carolina federal prosecutors to lifetime appointments on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

In back-to-back votes Tuesday, senators approved David Bragdon 53–45 and Lindsey Ann Freeman 60–39, according to Reuters. Their confirmations bring the total number of judicial appointments made during President Trump’s historic second term to 21, further solidifying the administration’s commitment to elevating judges grounded in the rule of law, originalism, and judicial restraint.

President Trump—who reshaped the federal courts during his first term with 234 confirmed judges—continues to systematically undo the progressive drift that dominated the bench for decades.

Bragdon previously served as appellate chief at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, while Freeman served as deputy chief in the Middle District office. President Trump highlighted Bragdon’s clerkship with Justice Clarence Thomas when first announcing the nomination in August.

Bragdon told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Trump personally called to congratulate him, adding that “that Justice Thomas spoke highly of me.”

Democrats and progressive activist groups mounted an aggressive campaign against Bragdon, pointing to a long-defunct Geocities page he operated as a college student from 1997 to 2000. The page included unapologetically pro-life and tough-on-crime positions—statements that progressives now claim disqualify him from judicial service.

Those early writings stated that abortion is “wrong because person or not, a fetus has just as much right to life as an infant does,” argued that “there is enough of a logical link between the death penalty and deterrence to call for an increased use of the death penalty,” and decried a bloated welfare system, noting that “our welfare system should be a safety net and not a hammock.”

The left-wing Alliance for Justice declared that confirming Bragdon “would legitimize his extreme rhetoric and pave the way for dangerous shifts in the rule of law,” a statement widely dismissed by conservatives as partisan hysteria.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin pressed Bragdon to clarify whether he still held the same views. Bragdon replied in writing: “Many of my views have changed or developed over time, and there are few things I would write the same way now that I did then.”

Senate Confirms Three Trump Ambassadors

The confirmations came just days after the Republican Senate majority approved three of President Trump’s diplomatic nominees—Warren Stephens (United Kingdom), Tom Barrack (Turkey), and Tilman Fertitta (Italy). All three have been outspoken supporters of the president and represent a return to results-driven foreign policy.

Stephens, an Arkansas investment banker, won confirmation 59–39. Sen. Tom Cotton praised him as a “family man, businessman, philanthropist, and patriot.”

“He is the right person to lead our strong, special relationship with the United Kingdom,” Cotton said.

Stephens, who once donated $1 million to an anti-Trump PAC during Trump’s first campaign, later came to support the president’s agenda, contributing to Trump-aligned organizations in 2019 and 2020 and donating $3 million to MAGA Inc. in 2024.

President Trump expressed confidence in the appointment, noting, “Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full-time. I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved allies.”

Barrack—one of Trump’s closest longtime allies in the private sector—was confirmed 60–36.

Together, the judicial and diplomatic confirmations underscore President Trump’s continued success in reshaping American governance, both domestically and abroad, in pursuit of stronger institutions, firmer borders, and a return to constitutional balance.