President Trump said Monday night that he thought Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “made a mistake” by insisting on the government shutdown that is on course to end later this week.
“I think he made a mistake in going too far,” Trump told Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” shortly before the Senate approved legislation to reopen the government. “He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him.”
Schumer, 74, joined 38 of his Democratic colleagues to oppose the spending bill, which funds the government through Jan. 30, 2026, while providing money for SNAP benefits, veterans programs, and congressional operations through Sept. 30 of next year.
The House is expected to vote to approve the bill Wednesday, sending it to Trump and ending the longest-ever government shutdown at 43 days.
Despite Schumer’s opposition to the bill, a growing chorus of Democrats are calling for him to step aside as party leader for failing to keep his conference united in favor of the shutdown.
“I’ve never seen a politician change so much,” Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham, adding that the Brooklyn Democrat “was a pretty talented guy” who had “lost his talent.”
“I feel badly, because I know Chuck Schumer,” the president added.
“I’ve known him since he was a person who loved Israel, and now he’s a Palestinian. He’s become a Palestinian.”
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Angus King (I-Maine) and Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) voted with 52 Republicans to end the shutdown after reaching an agreement over the weekend.
One of the few concessions Senate Democrats got in return was a promise of a future vote on an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, which Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) had offered weeks ago.
“What they really wanted,” Trump told Ingraham of the Democratic demands, “was $1.5 trillion for people that came in illegally.”
“We’re trying to get them out, because we don’t want 11,000 murderers in our country. You don’t want it. Nobody wants it,” he went on. “And we have drug dealers, and we have everything else, and they wanted to make sure they got good health care.”
Trump then disparaged Obamacare as “horrible,” saying, “Premiums have gone up like rocket ships, and I’m not even talking about just recently, I’m talking about for years they’ve been going up.”
“I want, instead of going to the insurance companies, I want the money to go to an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance,” the president explained.
“They’re actually able to go out and negotiate their own insurance.”
Leave a Reply