President Donald Trump keeps easing political pressure on Democrats to end the government shutdown, which could become the country’s longest and has no end in sight.
Three weeks since the federal government shut down after Republicans declined Democrats’ demands to extend Obamacare healthcare insurance premium tax credits, Trump has repeatedly undermined his own political leverage over Democrats by promising to pay military service members and fund food stamps for women and children after the White House had tried to use funding deadlines for both to put pressure on Democrats to reopen the government.
Then, on Monday, there were reports that Trump is considering paying air traffic controllers. Their need to be paid to avoid so-called “sick outs” helped end the longest shutdown in 2018, the shutdown that happened during Trump’s first administration over border wall funding.
The White House told the Washington Examiner that Trump wants the government to reopen “as soon as possible,” but, in the meantime, the administration “is working day and night to mitigate the pain Democrats are causing.”
“Democrats’ decision to shut down the government is hurting Americans across the country,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. “While [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer thinks every day of the shutdown ‘gets better,’ the Trump administration and the American people know the reality: it doesn’t.”
A White House official defended Trump’s shutdown strategy to the Washington Examiner, contending “Democrats are in disarray,” not Republicans.
“Their shutdown strategy has led them into a cul-de-sac that is pleasing to their far-left base, but not the American public – as we can see from their deteriorating polling position,” the source said. “Even the Democrats know they would be able to open the government if they were ‘not terrified of getting the guillotine’ from their far-left base.”
In an earlier exchange with the Washington Examiner during a press conference outside the West Wing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not directly respond to a question regarding Trump undermining his political leverage against Democrats.
Like Jackson, however, Leavitt praised Trump for pursuing “creative” ways to ensure military service members are paid, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, a federal program known as WIC, which is similar to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is funded. She has also previously remained adamant that the White House does not want a shutdown.
Trump has proposed redirecting Department of War funds appropriated by Congress to pay service members, including $8 billion in unobligated research development testing and evaluation money, and tariff revenue for WIC.
As the White House attempts to portray the government’s closure as Schumer’s (D-NY) shutdown, aides have downplayed the reports regarding air traffic controller pay. Instead, they emphasized Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s comments that “Democrats have one job to do: Open up the government.”
John Pitney, a former Republican strategist, said the White House is hoping the public will find Democrats responsible for the shutdown, but polls find “people either blame Republicans or say both sides are at fault.”
“Apparently, Trump’s team is worried that they are going to keep losing ground,” Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College, told the Washington Examiner. “They are trying to mitigate some of the political damage. But danger lurks just around the corner, in the form of increases in Obamacare premiums and further disruptions in SNAP benefits.”
Republican strategist Doug Heye agreed, describing how “there’s a very real deadline” on Nov. 1 when open enrollment for health insurance commences and people are advised their premiums are increasing. There are other deadlines regarding SNAP and federal employee pay, as most federal employees, except for law enforcement, expect to miss their first full paycheck on Friday.
“So avoiding that could be smart,” Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, told the Washington Examiner of the healthcare deadline. “If it’s not avoided, they can say, ‘I offered Democrats this and that, and nothing was good enough.’ And if not, we could be here for a long time.”
To that end, this week’s The Economist and YouGov tracking poll found a plurality of respondents told pollsters Republicans are responsible for a shutdown, 39% to 31%, and a plurality called on Democrats to “hold out” for more Obamacare subsidies, 45% to 32%.
The week prior, the same tracking poll found that, although inflation and the economy are the most pressing issues of concern for respondents before next year’s midterm elections, healthcare is third at 22%, 14%, and 11%, respectively.
For pollster David Paleologos, Trump and Republicans “need to protect themselves on the issues of public safety and immigration,” while Democrats “need to protect their base on protecting healthcare” during the shutdown.
“Democrats will say this is proof that Republicans don’t care about healthcare, just millionaires and billionaires,” Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, told the Washington Examiner.
Regardless, Republican strategist Ryan Berger supported Trump, arguing that the president “is doing the responsible thing” regarding the shutdown.
“Instead of sensibly reopening the government, Democrats are catering to their far-left base and continue to demand linking it with Obamacare tax credits, a system they passed entirely on their own, which drives up costs and reduces choices,” Berger, a principal at lobbying firm Navigators Global, told the Washington Examiner.
The White House has so far delegated negotiations with Democrats regarding the shutdown to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who have reiterated they will not engage with Democrats when the government is closed.
“We have offered them several off-ramps,” Thune said Monday. “They want $1.5 trillion in new spending. They want free healthcare for people who are noncitizens in this country. That is just a flat non-starter.”
During a White House event Tuesday for Senate Republicans, Trump amplified the same position, imploring eight Democrats to support the House-passed continuing resolution, a legislative measure prolonging current government funding until Nov. 21. The House, which is currently on recess, may need to reconvene soon to approve a longer measure.
“From the beginning, our message has been very simple: we will not be extorted on this crazy plot of theirs,” Trump told lawmakers on the Rose Garden patio. “We’re not doing that. They are the obstructionists.”
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett repeated Trump’s position, who predicted on Monday that the “shutdown is likely to end sometime this week.”
“If that ends up not being true, I think that the White House is going to have to look very closely, along with Russ Vought, at stronger measures that we could take to bring it to the table,” Hassett told CNBC.
STAY THE COURSE: NATION BACKS TRUMP’S MANUFACTURING AGENDA DESPITE TURBULENCE, GOP POLL FINDS
Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, earlier this month sent reduction-of-force directives to 4,000 more federal employees, previewing that the number could increase to 10,000 people if the shutdown is protracted. However, a federal court temporarily prevented the first round of firings.
