>>He’d never do this on his own. He’s feeling the heat from the donors. <<
I think you’re probably right about the pressure from donors making the difference.
What I don’t understand is why they aren’t putting a ton of pressure on him to dump the filibuster rule. That’s the only way conservative legislation is ever going to move through the Senate.
He'll never do it. Because today he can hide behind the democrats blocking things ("well we need 60 votes and we only have 52 so what can we do?") but the dirty secret is that if they had a simple majority rule it would become obvious that the "GOP" actually won't do the things they promised even when there is absolutely no impediment.
Legislation would be stopped with no filibuster rule there is no 52 voter majority except in theory.