President Donald Trump warned the federal government could shut down for the second time in less than three months next year over the battle to extend the Affordable Care Act‘s premium tax credits during a Friday night stop in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
The visit to eastern North Carolina marks the second stop of Trump’s affordability tour, following his Wednesday night prime-time address, in which he blamed former President Joe Biden for the economic woes the American public is facing.
But anxiety over the economy is likely to increase next year after Congress failed to extend Obamacare subsidies before leaving Washington this week for the holiday break. Trump claimed the healthcare drama is the fault of Democrats, not Republicans.
“It was bad healthcare at much too high a cost, and you see now that the steep increase in premiums it’s being demanded by the Democrats,” Trump said. “It was never any good, Obamacare. It was done for the benefit of insurance companies, which totally control the Democrats. That’s why you could have a strike on Jan. 30.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES DEALS WITH NINE MORE DRUG MANUFACTURERS
“You could have another shutdown because the Democrats are totally … controlled by the insurance companies, big wealthy companies,” Trump continued.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Thursday that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s (D-NY) bill that extends the subsidies for three years would get a vote in January when lawmakers return from the holiday recess. Four Republicans signed on to a discharge petition, bringing the total to 218 signatures, enough to set up a vote on the bill.
The Obamacare subsidies are set to expire on Dec. 31 and will bring more economic pain for enrollees, whose premiums will rise dramatically.
Congress faces a Jan. 30 deadline to fund the government, after a deal to end the federal shutdown in November included an agreement on three of the 12 bills lawmakers must pass to keep the government functioning. Democrats have suggested they may shut down the government over the Obamacare subsidies battle.
Before the North Carolina stop on Friday, the president held his first affordability tour in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, earlier this month. Republicans have urged Trump to focus on improving the economy as his top messaging strategy before the 2026 midterm elections. But Trump has repeatedly branded affordability as a Democratic “hoax,” even as Democrats have won a majority of the off-year and special election contests this year.
But a recent Reuters poll showed just 33% of respondents gave Trump’s economic policies a passing grade, down 10 points since January.
Trump touted the “most favored nation” drug agreements with nine manufacturers he unveiled earlier on Friday in Washington as an example of his efforts to meet the needs of the American public.
“Only hours ago, I left a meeting at the White House where we cut the cost of prescription drugs by 300, 400, 500, and even 600%,” Trump bragged. “And I’m doing what no politician of either party has ever done before, standing up to the special interests and demanding lower prices for the American people.”
Trump claimed the deal would help the GOP maintain control of the House and Senate during the 2026 midterm elections.
“Your drugs are coming down at levels that nobody ever thought was possible. This achievement alone should win us the midterms,” Trump said.
However, his nearly 90-minute speech saw the president criticize several of his foes, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and his two former Democratic presidential opponents, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.
Trump slammed Greene as “Marjorie Traitor Brown,” following a public spat between the two Republicans, while saying that Omar, a frequent Trump critic and immigrant from Somalia, “should be sent out of our country.”
Trump claimed that “beating Hillary was fun” during the 2016 race and that Clinton had a higher IQ than Harris. But also claimed that Clinton “was smart, she was nasty. I wouldn’t want to go home to her.”
The Tarheel State will host a critical race to replace outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R) during the 2026 midterm elections as Democrat Roy Cooper seeks to flip the seat. Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley, whom Trump has endorsed, is running in the GOP primary against Don Brown, a retired U.S. Navy JAG officer, and Michele Morrow, a former candidate for state superintendent.
“It’s so important that he wins,” Trump said of Whatley, whom he invited onstage to speak briefly. “You don’t want to have a radical left senator that basically wants to have open borders, transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports.”
Trump headed to Mar-a-Lago after the stop in Rocky Mount, where he will spend the Christmas holiday.
