WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has had one refrain in recent days when asked about the looming government shutdown.
Will there be a shutdown? Trump asserts, “because the Democrats are crazed.” Why is the White House aiming to carry out mass dismissals instead of just temporary layoffs of federal employees? According to Trump, “Well, this is all caused by the Democrats.”
Is he concerned about the impact of a shutdown? “The radical left Democrats want to shut it down,” he retorts.
“If it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down,” Trump said Friday. “But they’re the ones that are shutting down government.”
In his public statements, the Republican president has concentrated heavily on putting pressure on Democrats, hoping they will concede before the anticipated shutdown on Wednesday, or take the political blame if they don’t. This aligns Trump with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who have resisted Democrats’ requests to add health care provisions to a bill intended to maintain government operations for another seven weeks.
These dynamics might shift on Monday, as the president is set to meet with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., alongside Johnson and Thune. Democrats perceive this crucial meeting indicates that the GOP feels pressured to negotiate.
Nonetheless, Republicans maintain confidence that Democrats will be blamed if a shutdown occurs. For Trump, the consequences extend beyond mere politics. His administration is planning to execute extensive layoffs of federal employees instead of just introducing temporary furloughs, pushing for a smaller government aligning with Trump’s vision and priorities.
This time, it’s the Democrats making policy demands
The GOP’s position — a straightforward short-term funding extension without additional conditions — is atypical for a political group that often leverages the threat of a government shutdown to make policy demands.
Back in 2013, Republicans demanded the government be kept running only if the Affordable Care Act was defunded, resulting in a 16-day shutdown, which they were mainly blamed for. During his first term, Trump demanded funding for a border wall that Congress refused to approve, leading to a shutdown and an unusual Oval Office scene where he openly took responsibility for the closure.
“I will be the one to shut it down,” Trump declared at the time.
This time, it’s the Democrats making the policy demands.
They want an extension of subsidies that help low- and middle-income earners who buy insurance coverage through the Obama-era health care law. They also want to reverse cuts to Medicaid enacted in the GOP’s tax and border spending bill this year. Republican leaders say what Democrats are pushing for is too costly and too complicated to negotiate with the threat of a government shutdown hanging over lawmakers.
Watching all this is Trump. He has not ruled out a potential deal on continuing the expiring subsidies, which some Republicans also want to extend.
“My assumption is, he’s going to be willing to sit down and talk about at least one of these issues that they’re interested in and pursuing a solution for after the government stays open,” Thune said in an Associated Press interview last week. “Frankly, I just don’t know what you negotiate at this point.”
Back and forth on a White House sit-down
At this point, Trump has shown no public indication he plans to compromise with Democrats on a shutdown, even as he acknowledges he needs help from at least a handful of them to keep the government open and is willing to meet with them at the White House.
Last week, Trump appeared to agree to sit down with Schumer and Jeffries and a meeting went on the books for Thursday. Once word got out about that, Johnson and Thune intervened, privately making the case to Trump that it was not the time during the funding fight to negotiate with Democrats over health care, according to a person familiar with the conversation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Not long after hearing from the GOP leaders, Trump took to social media and said he would no longer meet with the two Democrats “after reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats.” Republicans privately acknowledge Trump’s decision to agree to a meeting was a misstep because it gave Democrats fodder to paint Trump as the one refusing to negotiate.
“Trump is literally boycotting meeting with Democrats to find a solution,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wrote on the social media site X before Trump reversed course again and agreed to meet with the leadership. “There is no one to blame but him. He wants a shut down.”
It was not immediately clear what led Trump over the weekend to take a meeting he had once refused. Schumer spoke privately with Thune on Friday, pushing the majority leader to get a meeting with the president scheduled because of the approaching funding deadline, according to a Schumer aide. A Thune spokesman said in response that Schumer was “clearly getting nervous.”
Another reason why Democrats suspect Trump would be fine with a shutdown is how his budget office would approach a closure should one happen.
The administration’s strategy was laid out in an Office of Management and Budget memo last week that said agencies should consider a reduction in force for federal programs whose funding would lapse, are not otherwise funded and are “not consistent” with the president’s priorities. A reduction in force would not only lay off employees but also eliminate their positions, triggering yet another massive upheaval in the federal workforce.
Jeffries argued that Trump and his top aides were using the “smoke screen of a government shutdown caused by them to do more damage.”
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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
