Trump Tells Republicans To Embrace A Government Shutdown To Place Blame On Biden

Topline

Former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to force a government shutdown if they don’t get “everything” they’re asking for in the 2024 budget negotiations as lawmakers have just six days to come to an agreement before the existing spending plan expires.

Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a commit to caucus rally, Wednesday, Sept. … [+] 20, 2023, at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Maquoketa, Iowa. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The Washington Post via Getty Images

Key Facts

Trump told the GOP in a Truth Social post late Sunday to hold firm on their demands for more border security and putting a stop to “election interference” and the “weaponization” of the Justice Department, referring to his claims that the agency is working on behalf of Democrats to prevent him from being re-elected.

Trump told Republicans who are worried they will be blamed for a shutdown that they’re “wrong!!!” and predicted the public would instead blame “crooked (as hell!) Joe Biden.”

“It’s time Republicans learn how to fight!” he wrote, while accusing Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) of bowing to Democrats, calling him “the weakest, dumbest and most conflicted ‘leader’ in U.S. Senate history.”

The post follows a similar push from Trump on Wednesday, when he urged Republicans to shut down the government if the budget doesn’t “defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government,” referring to the Justice Department.

Chief Critic

Biden’s campaign hit back at Trump’s insistence last week that Republicans should oppose any budget that does not limit funding for the Justice Department, accusing him of acting as “MAGA House Republicans’ puppetmaster” in a statement from campaign spokesperson TJ Ducklo. “Donald Trump is rooting for a government shutdown and couldn’t care less what it would mean for American families,” Ducklo said, adding “every American remembers the jobs lost and lives damaged by Donald Trump’s extremism . . . and now he’s once again playing political games with people’s lives by capitalizing on House Republicans’ weakness and doing whatever it takes to regain power.”

Tangent

The government shut down for the longest period in history, 35 days, during Trump’s term, beginning in December 2018, over his demands for more border wall funding. Trump eventually agreed to a short-term funding deal that did not include additional funding for a border wall when the shutdown prompted nationwide flight delays as air traffic controllers working without pay called in sick.

Key Background

Congress must pass, and the president must sign, 12 annual appropriations bills to keep the government up and running before the current fiscal year expires at the end of September. Far-right House Republicans have leveraged the GOP’s slim majority in the House by threatening to withhold their votes on a fiscal year 2024 spending plan that does not meet their demands. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has said she will vote against any spending plan that includes funding for Ukraine. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), meanwhile, rallied other Republicans last week to oppose the short-term spending deal, known as a continuing resolution, that a group of House negotiators, backed by McCarthy, attempted to move forward in the House last week. Any budget passed by the House, however, is expected to fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is seeking to pass a short-term deal that includes Ukraine funding.

What To Watch For

Gaetz has threatened to call for McCarthy’s ouster as speaker if he does not cave to the far-right’s demands for the budget and meet the terms of the agreement he reached with right-wing conservative holdouts to win the speaker election in January. Gaetz has said McCarthy back-tracked on the deal by agreeing to a higher budget threshold during the debt ceiling negotiations with Biden earlier this year and by failing to put forth a vote on term limits for lawmakers, among other grievances.