WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is showing little urgency to broker a compromise that would end the government shutdown, even as Democrats insist no breakthrough is possible without his direct involvement.
Three weeks later, Congress is at a standstill. The House hasn’t met in a month and senators left Washington on Thursday frustrated by the lack of progress. Republican leaders are refusing to negotiate until a short-term funding bill to reopen the government is passed, while Democrats say they won’t agree to expand health insurance subsidies without guarantees.
For now, Trump seems content to remain on the sidelines.
He spent the week celebrating a ceasefire agreement he led between Israel and Hamas, hosting a memorial service for conservative activist Charlie Kirk and refocusing attention on the war between Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile, his administration has handled the shutdown in an unconventional way, continuing to pay troops while laying off other federal employees.
When Trump was asked Thursday whether he would be willing to apply his dealmaking expertise in the shutdown, he seemed uninterested.
“Well, I mean, all we want to do is just extend. We don’t want anything, we just want to extend and live with the deal that they had,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. Later Thursday, he criticized Democrats’ health care demands as “crazy,” adding, “We’re just not going to do it.”
Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Democrats must first vote to reopen the government, “then we can have serious conversations about health care.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune reiterated that approach before leaving for the weekend, saying Trump was “ready to speak up and sit down with the Democrats or whoever as soon as the government opens up.”
Still, frustration is beginning to emerge within Trump’s own party, where lawmakers acknowledge that little happens in Congress without his direction.
As Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski left the Capitol on Thursday, she said, “We’re not making much progress this week.” For things to move forward, Murkowski acknowledged that Trump may need to get more involved: “I think he’s an important part of it.”
“I think there are some people in his administration who like the fact that Congress really doesn’t matter right now,” she added. “I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.”
Trump didn’t let the shutdown snail-paced him down
While Congress was paralyzed by the shutdown, Trump quickly implemented his vision for the federal government.
He has called budget chief Russ Vought the “Grim Reaper,” and Vought has seized the opportunity to withhold billions of dollars for infrastructure projects and lay off thousands of federal workers, signaling that the workforce cuts could be even more drastic.
At the same time, the administration has acted unilaterally to fund Trump’s priorities, including paying the military this week, easing pressure on what could be a key deadline for ending the shutdown.
Some of these measures, particularly the layoffs and funding shifts, have been criticized as illegal and are being challenged in court. A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily barred the government from laying off workers during the shutdown, ruling that the cuts appeared to be politically motivated and carried out without sufficient justification.
And with Congress focused on the fight over funding, lawmakers had little time to discuss other issues.
In the House, Johnson said the House would not return until Democrats approved the funding bill and refused to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva. Democrats say the move is intended to prevent her from becoming the 218th signatory of a dismissal petition aimed at forcing a vote on the release of documents related to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
So far, the shutdown has had little impact on public opinion.
An AP-NORC poll released Thursday found that three in 10 U.S. adults have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, similar to an AP-NORC poll from September. Four in 10 have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable opinion of the Republican Party, largely unchanged from last month.
The Democrats want Trump at the table. Republicans would prefer him to stay out
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans had shown little seriousness in negotiating an end to the shutdown.
“Chief Thune has not come to me with a proposal at this point,” Schumer said Thursday.
Democrats are frustrated with congressmen and are increasingly looking to Trump.
In a CNN town hall Wednesday night with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, both repeatedly called for the president’s involvement when asked why negotiations had stalled.
“President Trump doesn’t talk. That’s the problem,” Sanders said.
Ocasio-Cortez added that Trump “should have a regular congressional leader in the White House.”
Democrats’ focus on Trump reflects both his leadership style – which allows little to happen in Congress without his approval – and the fact that any funding bill requires the president’s signature to become law.
This time, however, Republican leaders who control the House and Senate are resisting any pressure to get Trump to intervene.
“You can’t negotiate when someone has a hostage,” said South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who added that Trump’s interference would allow Democrats to apply the same tactics in future legislative fights.
Trump has largely followed this guidance. After previously saying he was open to negotiating with Democrats over health insurance subsidies, he walked that back after Republican leaders suggested he misspoke.
And that probably won’t change for the time being. Trump has no plans to personally intervene to broker a deal with Democrats, according to a senior White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The official added that the only emergency funding bill Democrats can count on is the one already on the table.
“The president is happy to have a conversation about health care policy, but he will not do so as long as Democrats hold the American people hostage,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Thursday.
A product of Congress that shaped Trump
In his second term, Trump took a top-down approach and allowed little to be moved in Congress without his approval.
“It’s clear to me that Mike Johnson and John Thune don’t do much without Donald Trump telling them what to do,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
His influence is particularly sturdy in the Republican-led House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson effectively owes his job to Trump and relies on his influence to gain power in hard legislative battles.
When Republicans held up voting on Trump’s priorities in Congress, he would call them or summon them to his office to influence them directly. If that doesn’t work, he has vowed to unseat her at the next election. This has led many Democrats to believe that the only path to agreement is through the White House, not the speaker’s office.
Democrats also want assurances from the White House that they will not back out of a deal. The White House completely eliminated the legislative branch earlier this year by cutting foreign aid by $4.9 billion in August. This happened in a legally questionable procedure known as “pocket rescission.” And even before he took office delayed last year, Trump and his ally Elon Musk blew up a bipartisan funding deal that both parties had negotiated.
“I think we need to see ink on paper. I think we need to see legislation. I think we need to see votes,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I don’t accept small promises. That’s not my business.”
Both parties also see little reason to give in to public pressure because they expect to win the battle over messaging.
“Everyone thinks they’re going to win,” Murkowski said. “Nobody wins when everyone loses. And that’s exactly what’s happening right now. The American public is losing.”
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Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
