How far can Trump go to get his nominees confirmed?

President-elect Donald Trump is charting a course toward a major showdown with the Senate over the nomination of his Cabinet nominees, which could spark an unprecedented power struggle between the executive and legislative branches of government.

His pressure campaign is already underway, together with Trump post on social media before the Election of Republican leader in the Senate earlier this week that a majority leader must “agree” to allow recess appointments if his nominees are otherwise left hanging during the confirmation process. The three candidates in the leadership race quickly agreed that this would be an option, and the winner, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., publicly reiterated Thursday that “all options are on the table.”

“Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but we’ll find out pretty quickly whether Democrats want to play along or not,” Thune told Fox News on Thursday. Thune and other Republicans have tried to shift the focus to the minority party, despite having a 53-vote Republican Party-controlled Senate, which can approve Trump’s nominees without any help from Democrats.

But the real confrontation may not take place between opposing sides. Instead, Trump may face resistance from the Republican Party against his more controversial nominees, including former Florida Republican Matt Gaetz for attorney general and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii as Director of National Intelligence. These nominees present an early and critical test for Senate Republicans as they remain loyal to a party leader they believe is responsible for the Republican Party achieving unified government and retaining one of their most important positions.

“It comes across as a shot across (Trump’s) bow,” said Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the center-right American Enterprise Institute. ‘You force legislators to ask themselves: do we want to formally set ourselves aside, and what kind of precedent does that set? The idea that the reward for winning the Senate is to put our heads between our legs and sneak away and just watch you put on a show — I don’t think senators are likely to go for that.

If Trump doesn’t withdraw and Thune doesn’t have the votes to confirm any combination of nominees, the battle could begin.

Let’s back up. How do confirmations usually work?

Presidential nominations are usually referred to the relevant committees. For example, the attorney general is referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. While there are times when a privileged nomination is not vetted unless a senator requests it, most nominees are vetted this way.

Committees collect information about nominees before, or sometimes instead of, a hearing. Here, senators look at the nominees’ qualifications, statements and experience. For most Cabinet-level nominees, but especially for high-profile nominations such as secretaries of state and defense, a public confirmation hearing is common and expected by the Senate.

The committee then reports the nomination to the full Senate with several options: favorable, unfavorable, without recommendation, or it can take no action.

A majority of the full Senate is required to approve a nomination. Nominees are no longer subject to a 60-vote filibuster threat, so Democrats can’t block nominees on their own, but they can use procedural rules to slow the process — and will likely do so again.

Although cabinet-level positions receive a lot of media attention, thousands of executive nominations are made each Congress. There simply isn’t enough time for the Senate to approve each one individually for the Senate to approve “en bloc” – essentially a bulk approval.

It’s worth noting that it’s rare for the Senate to vote down a Cabinet pick. Nominees at risk of failing the Senate process can withdraw before reaching the point of public failure.

Okay, but what about these break agreements?

The Constitution gives the president the power to make recess appointments — an appointment for a limited term to fill a vacancy while the chamber is in recess, essentially bypassing the confirmation process.

“For most of the country’s history, Congress was usually not in session,” Wallach said. “In this age of modern transportation, where for most of these legislators this is their full-time job, Congress is almost always there. And so the basic need for recess appointments seems much less important to the constitutional system than it might be. I have to say to the founders who would have thought, ‘Yes, as a matter of logistics, it’s very important that we can get people in place if Congress isn’t going to be here for the next four months.'”

Recess appointments last only until the end of the next Senate session.

Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University, says these kinds of restrictions aren’t necessarily a disadvantage for the Trump administration.

“Two years in politics can be a long time, especially for a Trump appointee, given the turnover he has had before,” she said.

If a president uses recess appointments to push through nominees, those nominees risk not receiving a salary if the Senate then formally votes against that nomination.

Past presidents have used the recess appointment mechanism, usually for positions below Cabinet level.

In 2014, in response to then-President Barack Obama’s use of recess appointments to fill spots on the National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it takes ten or more days for a Senate recess to actually occur.

Since that ruling, the Senate has ended a long recess. To ensure that a president cannot install someone without his input, the Senate holds so-called ‘pro forma’ sessions. Little or no business gets done while most of the Senate is away, and every few days a senator comes into the chamber to technically keep the body in session.

Okay, but if Republicans wanted to help Trump by taking a recess, could they?

Technically yes. Senate Democrats could complicate the process through procedural maneuvers. But it is conceivable that the GOP-controlled Senate could find a way to delay the session for the necessary 10 or more days. That would give Trump the opportunity to carry out his will.

But the bigger question is: would Senate Republicans do the same? Real Do you want to relinquish one of your most important positions? Senators take the advice and consent of presidential nominations seriously and do not want to be completely bypassed by the president.

“Do senators really have fifty votes to say: ‘We are not going to give advice and consent. You can do whatever you want. Our loyalty to you is so much more important to the rights we have as senators,’” Binder said.

Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn, a former top party leader who ran for Senate majority leader, recently told reporters that recess appointments are a kind of “fail safe” if Democrats were to block nominees.

“(Trump) has the right to get his team in place without unnecessary delays,” he said. ‘That’s where I see the recess agreements.’

Thune told reporters he expects “a level of cooperation from Democrats to work with us to get these people installed.”

Republicans could adjust the calendar — staying longer or working weekends — to apply pressure and try to get Democrats to cooperate. But that’s a completely different story than the Senate deciding to abdicate one of its greatest duties.

Is there another way to continue recess appointments?

Buckle up.

Short answer – yes – and it has to do with the suspension of Congress.

Both chambers must agree to a suspension of longer than three days. If one chamber agrees to adjourn and the other does not, the House and Senate are considered to be in a state of discord.

Aim the Constitutionwhich states: “In case of disagreement between (the House and the Senate), as to the time of adjournment, (the President) may adjourn the same to such time as he may deem fit.”

So a president could adjourn Congress if there is disagreement between the two chambers, and use that as a way to ram through his nominees. It’s something Trump previously threatened to do during his first term.

“It’s not something that’s ever happened in American history. It kind of smacks of this royal model that America tried to shake off 250 years ago, right?” Walach said. ‘The idea that a king can provoke parliament. If you had the members of one chamber screaming bloody murder while the president was trying to get this done, that would be an extraordinary constitutional crisis.”

And like any unknown territory, this brings with it many questions.

For example, congressional parliamentary experts disagree on what constitutes a formal disagreement between chambers. Some told NPR that the Senate should send a formal resolution back to the House of Representatives. Others said the mere fact that any resolution sent to the Senate is not passed by the Senate is an indication that there is disagreement.

“I think this debate has gotten out of hand,” said James Wallner, a senior fellow at R Street, a think tank that focuses on public policy through limited government. “This is just not going to happen.”

He said that for a situation of disagreement to exist, the House would have to pass an adjournment resolution, send it to the Senate, the Senate would amend the bill and send it back to the House, and the House would not would agree with the changes.

“Simply passing the bill and sending it to the Senate while the Senate does nothing doesn’t mean the Senate doesn’t agree with your bill, it means the Senate is ignoring you,” Wallner said. “The House of Representatives cannot force the Senate into a state of discord. Only the Senate can do that by acting on whatever the House sends them.”

But procedure and constitutionality are one thing – quite apart from the messaging battle Trump might wage from the White House. And the fact that this is being debated in Washington — with all its murky procedural waters — underlines how ready Trump seems for this fight.

While there is some bickering in the House about how exactly Trump would try to adjourn the Senate on his own, there is broad agreement that if he tried to do so, it would likely require Supreme Court intervention to ultimately resolve it. There are also questions about when the judge can intervene and with which injured party.

It’s also possible that Trump’s demand for recess appointments is part of a strategy to woo Republicans who have difficulty with some of his nominees.

“With Trump, the question is always whether he is raising the stakes as a way to shift the negotiations onto more favorable grounds, without really expecting to follow through on everything he says,” Wallach said.