Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump Recently, there was one refrain when asked about coming Government closure.
Is there a shutdown? Yes, Trump says, “Because the Democrats are crazy.” Why the White House? Pursuing mass firingIsn’t it just the furlough of federal workers? Trump replies, “Well, this is all caused by Democrats.”
Is he worried? The impact of shutdown? “The radical left Democrats want to close it,” he retorts.
“If we need to shut it down, we need to shut it down,” Trump said Friday. “But they’re shutting down the government.”
In his public rhetoric, the Republican president has focused on putting pressure on Democrats in the hopes that closures will begin, or that it will be available before Wednesday, when the shoulders can begin. Political responsibility If not. This led to Trump being R-La. It coincided with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator majority leader John Tune (Rs.D.).
These dynamics may change on Monday The president agreed to the host Senate minority leaders Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., House minority leaders Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y., Johnson and Thune. Democrats believe the high stakes meeting means that the GOP feels pressured to compromise with them.
Still, Republicans say they are confident that Democrats will be negligent if the shutdown comes. For Trump, the impact goes far beyond politics. His administration sketches plans to implement massive layoffs of federal workers rather than simply raiding them, promoting the goal of building a much smaller government in line with Trump’s vision and policy priorities.
This time, we are a Democrat who is making policy demands.
The GOP’s stance is a short-term extension of funding that is not stringed – is unusual for political parties who have tried to extract policy demands using the threat of government shutdown as leverage.
2013, Republicans refused to continue running the government The stand that led to a 16-day shutdown where GOP was widely criticized, unless the Affordable Care Act was refunded. During his first term, Trump insisted Add funds to the boundary wall Congress refuses to approve it, and the president urges the shutdown. Extraordinary oval office meeting It unfolds in front of the camera and he says, “take the mantle.”
“I’m going to be the one who shuts it down,” Trump declared at the time.
That’s right this time I’m making a Democrat The policy requires it.
They want Subsidies extension This will help low- and middle-income earners who purchase insurance coverage through Obama-era Healthcare Act. They also want to reverse the Medicaid cuts enacted in the GOP tax and border spending bill this year. Republican leaders say what Democrats are pushing is too expensive and complicated to negotiate with the threat of government shutdowns that lie on lawmakers.
This is all a card. He has not ruled out potential transactions that will continue to expired subsidies. The Republicans also want to expand.
“My assumption is that he’s willing to sit down and talk about at least one of these issues that the government is pursuing a solution since it’s been opening,” Thune said. Associated Press Interview last week. “Frankly, I just don’t know what you’re negotiating at this point.”
White House sit-in back and forth
At this point, Trump has not shown that he has no plans to compromise with Democrats when he closes, despite his acknowledging that he needs at least their help to keep the government open and be willing to meet them at the White House.
Last week, Trump appears to have agreed to sit with Schumer and Jeffreys, and the meeting wrote the book on Thursday. When the words came out about it, Johnson and Tune intervened, insisting to Trump that negotiating with Democrats over health care was not during the fundraising fight, according to people who were not permitted to discuss it publicly and were familiar with the conversation they spoke to on condition of anonymity.
Shortly after hearing from the GOP leader, Trump told me to take him to social media. He wouldn’t have met again The two Democrats “after reviewing details of outrageous demands not being made by minority radical left Democrats.” Republicans personally acknowledged Trump’s decision to agree to the meeting as he fed Democrats to portray Trump as someone who refused to negotiate.
“Trump literally boycotts meetings with Democrats to find a solution,” he agreed to meet with leadership, writing on social media site X before Trump overturned the course again. “No one else is responsible for anything but him. He wants to shut down.”
It was not immediately clear that he had held a meeting he once refused to lead Trump over the weekend. Schumer spoke personally with Thune on Friday, asking majority leaders to win a meeting with the president, which is scheduled as the funding deadline approaches. A spokesman for Thune replied that Schumer was “clearly nervous.”
Another reason Democrats doubt Trump is okay with a shutdown is the way his Budget Office approaches closure.
The administration’s strategy was laid out last week in the Management and Budget Memo Bureau, which stated that funding expired and otherwise would not be funded and should consider reducing the power of a federal program that is “inconsistent” with the president’s priorities. The reduction in power not only fires employees, but also eliminates their status, but also causes yet another cataclysm of the federal workforce.
Jeffries allegedly had Trump and his top aides using “smoke screens on the government’s shutdown that caused them to cause more damage.”
___
Associated Press Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press author Mary Claire Jaronick contributed to the report.
