Congress is getting closer to a government shutdown at midnight. President Trump said on Tuesday that federal job cuts would be inevitable if Democrats forced a government shutdown, accusing his opponents of putting immigration and spending ahead of the national interest.
President Donald Trump met yesterday with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., but the talks failed to produce an agreement.
“Well, the Democrats want to shut it down. So, when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs so we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected and the Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” he said in the Oval Office.
Trump argued that the dispute centers on Democratic demands over immigration. “As you know, this country — no country can afford to pay for illegal immigration, healthcare for everybody that comes into the country. That’s what they’re insisting. And obviously, I have an obligation to not accept that. That would affect everybody.”
Trump said the economy was performing well and should not be derailed, but suggested that a shutdown could also be used to Republican advantage.
“We’re doing well as a country so the last thing we want to do is shut it down. But a lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want and they’d be Democrat things.”
He then launched into a broader attack on his rivals. “They want open borders. They want men playing in women’s sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop. They don’t learn. We won an election in a landslide. They just don’t learn. So we have no choice. I have to do that for the country.”
The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo tonight to the heads of departments and agencies directing them to prepare for a shutdown after the Senate rejected both bills aimed at keeping the government open. “Affected agencies should now execute their plans for an orderly shutdown,” OMB Director Russell Vought wrote in a copy of the memo posted to X.
