Finding a deal this week to avoid a government shutdown will come down to a negotiation between President Trump and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), whose relationship is so bitter that lawmakers in both parties see little chance of an agreement.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) this week on how to avoid the looming shutdown, a White House official told The Hill on Monday.
While Jeffries is an important player, Schumer has more leverage because he proved last week that Senate Democrats have the votes to block any partisan funding measure passed by the House. It will take 60 votes to get anything through the Senate.
The last time Trump and Schumer tried to negotiate something was at the start of August, when Republicans were trying to get more than 140 of Trump’s stalled executive branch nominees past a Democratic blockade in the Senate.
It didn’t end well. Trump scuttled the negotiations by delivering a blunt directive to Schumer on social media: “Go to hell.”
Schumer rips Trump on a near-daily basis on the Senate floor, accusing the president of being a wannabe dictator and serial liar who puts his own interests and even Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests ahead of what’s best for the United States.
Senate Democrats slow-walked Trump’s lower-level executive branch nominees this year, refusing to confirm a single civilian nominee by unanimous consent or voice vote. The unprecedented obstruction of routine nominees resulted in Republicans changing the Senate rules by invoking the so-called nuclear option.
Trump dubbed the Senate Democratic leader “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” early in his first term and mocked him again over the summer for repeatedly stepping on political landmines on crime, immigration and transgender rights.
This has left observers decidedly pessimistic about their chances of reaching a deal.
“Schumer and Trump, do they have an interest in and can they get together and do something? I think it’s very, very tough for Schumer. I think he’s got a left flank in his party that does not want to deal at all with Trump regardless of the merits of the issue,” said Republican strategist Vin Weber, a former member of the House who came to Congress in 1981, the same year Schumer came to Washington as a first-term House member.
“He’s a very capable guy and would be capable of doing a deal, but I think that he’s prevented from doing one by the left flank of his own party,” he added.
Schumer was the target of an angry backlash from progressives in March after he voted along with nine other members of the Senate Democratic Caucus for a six-month partisan funding bill passed by the House.
Liberal Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) blasted Schumer’s vote as a “tremendous mistake,” and she’s now eyeing a potential challenge to Schumer in New York’s 2028 Senate Democratic primary, according to a source who has spoken to her.
Weber said he doesn’t see Trump making any significant concessions to Schumer, who has demanded that Republicans agree to permanently extend the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced health insurance premium subsidies, something that would cost $350 billion over 10 years.
“Trump is not in concessions mode. The Charlie Kirk thing has got conservatives with a certain edge to them now. I doubt very much the president is going to be in a mood to make concessions, which his base doesn’t like,” he added, referring to the murder of Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, which has unleashed a wave of anger from Trump’s MAGA base.
Trump vented his own anger with the political left this weekend when he urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political enemies, singling out New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for their roles in indicting and impeaching him.
“I hate my opponent,” Trump said bluntly at Kirk’s memorial service in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday, offering a sharp contrast to Kirk’s widow, Erika, who said moments earlier in a tearful speech that she forgave her husband’s alleged killer.
The president could barely contain his disdain for Democrats when asked Saturday whether he would meet with Schumer and Jeffries to hash out a spending deal.
“They want all this stuff. They don’t change. They haven’t learned from the biggest beating they’ve ever taken. … I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have an impact,” he told reporters at the White House.
Trump’s rhetoric has Democrats pessimistic about a deal before the Sept. 30 deadline.
“I don’t expect a quick resolution,” said Jim Kessler, a former Schumer aide who now serves as executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank.
“What Schumer is asking for falls well within the realm of normal and what Trump is doing falls well outside the realm of normal,” he said. “I’ll also add that Trump has spoken to [Chinese President] Xi Jinping this year more than he’s spoken to Schumer.”
“I do feel that Republicans and Trump believe that a government shutdown works to their political benefit,” he said. “This is a different era and a different type of president who has spent nine months breaking things. Schumer cut a deal to keep [government] open in March [that] showed that he was willing to bend over backwards to keep the government running.”
Trump made it clear in a recent Fox News interview that he doesn’t think it’s worth talking to Democrats, telling “Fox & Friends” that “there’s something wrong” with Democrats and that his advice to Republicans is “don’t even bother dealing with them.”
Schumer, Jeffries and other Democratic leaders are demanding a lot in exchange for their votes on a government funding bill.
In addition to extending health insurance subsidies, they want Republicans to restore nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid spending cuts enacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Democrats also want to unfreeze funds that have been targeted for rescission by Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, including the $5 billion in foreign aid the White House is trying to claw back with a pocket rescission.
Trump-allied Republican strategists say Trump shouldn’t make any concessions to Schumer on health care, likening the Democrats’ demands to Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) attempt to use government funding as leverage to repeal ObamaCare in 2013 — a tactic that failed and split the Republican Party at the time.
John Ullyot, an adviser to Trump’s 2016 president campaign, said he “shouldn’t” give any concessions to Schumer.
“This is something where Schumer has tried to stop him in any way that he can and now he’s asking for a favor when President Trump holds all the cards. This is going to be a Democratic shutdown if it happens,” he said. “They’re insisting on getting riders on the [continuing resolution (CR)] and Trump has a very easy argument, which is a clean CR makes sense right now to avoid a government shutdown.”
The last time Trump and Schumer held a high-stake, high-profile meeting over government funding was in December of 2018, and it didn’t end well.
The meeting, which then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also attended, quickly went off the rails. Trump, Schumer and Pelosi talked over each other, raising their voices, until Trump heatedly declared he would be “proud” to shut the government down over border security.
“I’ll be the one to shut it down. I will take the mantle,” Trump said as his frustration boiled over.
That tense meeting preceded what turned out to be a 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Jonathan Kott, a Democratic strategist and former Senate aide, said whether or not the government closes will hinge on Trump and Schumer meeting face-to-face.
“The two of them have to get in a room. They’ve known each other for years, they’re both from outer boroughs,” he said. “The two of them need to sit down in a room together, put their differences aside and figure out what they compromise on. Until that happens, there’s not going to be any movement.
“The animosity is real,” he added. “Sen. Schumer is fighting for not just New York but for what the Democrats believe in, and he believes Donald Trump is trying to dismantle all of that.”
Source: The Hill
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