The Trump administration is expecting the federal government to shut down when funding expires next week, Politico Friday.
A senior White House official reportedly told the news outlet the administration is “bracing for impact” and that there are no plans to negotiate with Democratic leadership in Congress for a funding deal.
“We’re going to extract maximum pain,” the official reportedly said, adding that Democrats will “pay a huge price for this.”
President Donald Trump recently canceled a meeting with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who both demanded a negotiation on Republican healthcare policies. The Democrats said in a to Trump on Saturday they were ready to discuss an agreement that “improves the lives of American families and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”
The president “read all the s**t they’re asking for, and he said, ‘on second thought, go f**k yourself,’” Politico quoted the White House official as saying.
Democrats wouldn’t be able to withstand a shutdown very long, the official reportedly noted. Republican lawmakers are “strapped in for a fight” and would make Democrats vote at least five times,” according to the report.
“Historically, it’s the aggressor that always loses,” Politico quoted the official as explaining. “And quite simply, their constituencies and their priorities are all going to get chewed up, and ours, not so much.”
The National News Desk requested comment from the White House on the matter and was referred to remarks Trump made to reporters Friday morning. The president claimed Democrats want a shutdown to give “billions, ultimately trillions, of dollars to illegal migrants.”
“They also wanna have open borders, they wanna have men in women’s sports, they wanna have transgender for everybody,” Trump said, without elaborating. “These people are crazy, the Democrats. So, if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down. But they’re the ones that are shutting down the government.”
Democrats disagree. Leaders Jeffries and Schumer said in a on Wednesday that Trump and his Republican allies were continuing to “march this country toward a painful Republican shutdown, while exacerbating the healthcare crisis that they have unleashed.”
“Democrats have been clear that we are willing to sit down and work toward an agreement that protects the healthcare of the American people and improves their quality of life,” the lawmakers said. “After agreeing to our demand to meet to prevent a government shutdown, Donald Trump threw an unhinged temper tantrum and canceled the meeting.”
“The American people will hold President Trump and Republican sycophants in Congress responsible,” the leaders added.
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