President Donald Trump canceled a planned meeting between himself, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as he risks a shutdown of the federal government in seven days.
Trump put out a statement before heading to his UN General Assembly address in New York Tuesday morning, as he and the Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to meet later this week.
“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,” the president posted to his Truth Social platform.
Earlier in the day, Schumer and Jeffries had put out a statement in response to Trump’s agreement to meet with them.
“After weeks of Republican stonewalling in Congress, President Trump has agreed to meet this week in the Oval Office. In the meeting, we will emphasize the importance of addressing rising costs, including the Republican healthcare crisis. It’s past time to meet and work to avoid a Republican-caused shutdown.”
But the president objected because congressional Democrats wanted to roll back parts of his “Big, Beautiful Bill” that pertain to health care.
“The Democrats in Congress seem to have totally lost their way. They obviously have no idea what it means to put America First or to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said.
Congress is currently out of session in observation of the Jewish high holidays. But the House and Senate will not return until September 29, one day before the government is set to run out of money.
Republicans — including Trump — want to pass a “clean” continuing resolution, known as a “CR.” But many Democrats want to include an extension of expanded subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s health care marketplaces. The subsidies were initially expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic and then extended in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that Joe Biden signed.
In the past, Trump had signaled to Republicans not to negotiate with Democrats. But Republicans have only 53 seats in the Senate and they would need 60 votes for a continuing resolution to pass.
Earlier this year, Republicans forced through the passage of a continuing resolution for the rest of the fiscal year with no input from Democrats after Schumer signaled his support for the legislation. That led to a revolt within Schumer’s caucus and a majority of Democrats voting against the legislation.
But Trump’s Truth Social post named a litany of grievances of policies that he said Democrats supported that had little to do with the government spending bill such as transgender athletes playing women’s sports, lax penalties for criminal offenders and taxpayer funding for gender transition surgery.
“I’ll be happy to meet with them if they agree to the Principles in this Letter.,” Trump said. “They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand.”
But Schumer did not show any signs of backing down in a post on X.
“Happy New Year, Mr. President,” he said. “When you’re finished ranting, we can sit down and discuss health care.“
Jeffries was more direct.
“Donald Trump just cancelled a high stakes meeting in the Oval Office with myself and Leader Schumer,” he said. “The extremists want to shut down the government because they are unwilling to address the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating America.“
