President Donald Trump canceled a meeting with top Democrats on Tuesday, arguing that Republicans could not agree to their “unserious and ridiculous demands” to fund the government eight days away from a likely partial shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent a joint letter to Trump on Saturday requesting a meeting to discuss funding the government ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline. Trump cast doubt on whether he would be able to agree to Democrats’ demands for policy concessions in exchange for their votes on funding the government, but indicated that a meeting with party leaders could still happen.
“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social. “There are consequences to losing Elections but, based on their letter to me, the Democrats haven’t figured that out yet.”
Trump also told reporters on Sunday that he was open to a meeting with Jeffries and Schumer, but conceded “I don’t think it’s going to have any impact.”
Senate Republicans will need some Democratic buy-in order to pass a government funding bill due to the upper chamber’s 60-vote filibuster. All but one House Democrat on Friday voted against the “clean” Republican stopgap measure to fund the government through Nov. 21 — which passed the lower chamber by a razor-thin margin.
Senate Democrats largely followed their House counterparts’ lead with every member of the Democratic caucus except for Sen. John Fetterman blocking the GOP stopgap plan to fund the government on Friday. Schumer has repeatedly vowed to oppose Republicans’ short-term funding measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that does not include partisan policy demands proposed by Democrats.
Schumer’s hardball tactics come as Democrats rubber stamped thirteen similar spending bills under former President Joe Biden. Democrats have also been unable to specify what they oppose within Republicans’ stopgap measure.
The GOP spending bill would fund agencies at current levels and provide for additional security assistance for all three branches of government in the wake of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Trump railed against Democrats for proposing a counter CR that would force the government to spend roughly $1.5 trillion to keep government operations running for just four weeks. Democrats’ proposal would have permanently extended Biden-era Affordable Care Act subsidies, undone Republicans’ Medicaid reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and restored funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting that Republicans successfully rescinded in July.
The Senate rejected Democrats’ costly spending bill on Friday during a party-line vote. Senate Republicans also torched the Democratic plan for proposing to nix federal funding for rural health providers in every state.
“They are trying to eliminate the popular $50 Billion Dollar Rural and Vulnerable Hospital Fund, which was passed with only Republican Votes, and proudly signed into Law by ME,” Trump added in his Truth social post.
“The Democrats in Congress seem to have totally lost their way,” Trump continued. “They obviously have no idea what it means to put America First or to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that he and Senate Majority Leader John Thune would participate in any meetings between top Democrats and Trump, but threw cold water on whether a meeting is necessary.
“Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have made just wild partisan demands that they’re trying to attach to a very simple, short-term, very clean CR,” Johnson said on Tuesday. “They’re trying to make a mockery of it.”
“We just want to keep the government open so our appropriators can continue to do their work,” Johnson continued. “That is a bipartisan concern and responsibility, and I have no idea why they’re trying to cloud this.”
Trump also signaled that he is willing to meet with top Democrats if they drop some of their partisan demands to keep government operations running.
“To the Leaders of the Democrat Party, the ball is in your court,” Trump wrote at the end of his post. “I look forward to meeting with you when you become realistic about the things that our Country stands for. DO THE RIGHT THING!”
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