WATCH: Trump Says Senate GOP Should ‘Go Nuclear’ if Necessary to Confirm SCOTUS Nominee

President Signals GOP Should Do Everything Necessary to Support Him Despite Possible Damage to Future

Sitting with a group of far right activists Wednesday afternoon President Donald Trump said the Senate should “go nuclear” if needed to confirm his Supreme Court nominee. 

“If we end up with that gridlock, I would say, if you can, Mitch, go nuclear,” Trump told reporters, referring to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Current Senate rules require only a 51 vote majority (or 50 plus the vice president) for confirmation of all presidential nominees except those for the Supreme Court, which require 60 votes. Going “nuclear” would mean the Senate would have to change the rules to include Supreme Court nominees in the 51 vote majority.

Invoking the nuclear option could, for generations to come, demote the Senate from being a deliberative body responsible for being a check on the executive and judicial branches, as well as on the rashness of the House, to being a rubber stamp on extremism and populism.

RELATED: LGBT, Civil Rights Groups Denounce Trump’s Choice of Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch

Sitting next to NRA chief Wayne LaPierre, and in a room including extreme anti-gay activist Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America, Trump said it would be an “absolute shame” if Judge Neil Gorsuch, his nominee, were “put up to that neglect.”

“So I would say, it’s up to Mitch, but I would say go for it.”

UPDATE: 12:45 PM EST –
Just now on MSNBC Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Trump’s remarks “a threat in a long line of threats,” and suggested to the President that the Senate is a separate body, not under his control.