According to a report from the New York Times, former President Donald Trump has humorously claimed in private conversations that he holds dual roles as both the President and the Speaker of the House. This assertion was revealed by two anonymous sources familiar with Trump’s remarks, as noted in the report published on Saturday.

Trump’s lighthearted comments emerge amidst a prolonged halt in legislative activities, as the U.S. House of Representatives has remained inactive throughout October. This pause in proceedings is attributed to Speaker Johnson’s decision to delay reconvening until the Senate advances a bill to fund the government. The government has been in a state of shutdown since the previous funding agreement lapsed on October 1st.

In the midst of this political impasse, a poll by Economist/YouGov, conducted between October 17th and 20th with 1,621 participants, revealed that 49 percent of Americans feel the shutdown has no personal impact on their lives. Meanwhile, President Trump has directed that military personnel continue to receive their paychecks during this period of governmental inactivity.

The president has ruled that they will be paid using any available funds from the Fiscal Year 2026 budget that Congress has already appropriated. Republicans have supported a short-term measure to fund the government generally at current levels through November 21 but Democrats blocked it, insisting the measure address their concerns on health care.

On October 1, the first day of the shutdown, the President said he would with meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought ‘to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.’ Amid the shutdown, a high-ranking Democrat also appears to have admitted an inconvenient truth.

Massachusetts Representative Katherine Clark, who is the Minority Whip of the United States House of Representatives, admitted that she views families struggling during the shutdown as ‘leverage’ for her party to use in political games. ‘Shutdowns are terrible. And of course there will be families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously, but it is one of the few leverage times we have,’ Clark said.

Clark’s comments, made during an interview with Fox News Channel’s Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram last week, were rebuked on Tuesday by several congressional Republicans and also played in the White House press briefing room. White House reporters were surprised to see the video pop up on the briefing screens, but it played throughout the day as they passed through.

Wisconsin Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden wrote on X, ‘This is exactly what Chuck Schumer meant when he said, “Every day gets better for us.”‘ Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn noted in his own X post, ‘It is shameful to use the American people as leverage to push your radical agenda. Millions of Americans are suffering, also adding, “Democrats don’t care.”‘ Iowa Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who represents one of the most competitive House seats, called Clark’s comments ‘disgraceful’, also stating that the ‘Democrat leaders are perfectly okay with American families suffering.’