If there’s a shutdown, there’s a shutdown — Trump

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US President Donald Trump downplayed the severity of a potential government shutdown on Thursday, just two days shy of a deadline for Congress to reach a spending deal to avert temporary layoffs of federal workers.

“We’ll see what happens. If there’s a shutdown, there’s a shutdown,” Trump told Reuters in an interview, adding that Democrats would be to blame if the federal government was left unfunded.

Congress has until 12:01 a.m. today to pass a bill to fund the government or face a shutdown, which would temporarily lay off hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to fund government operations at current levels for one more week, giving them time to finish negotiations with Democrats on the plan for the rest of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

Trump said a shutdown would be a “very negative thing” but that his administration was prepared if it was necessary.

In a wide-ranging interview, he defended the one-page tax plan he unveiled on Wednesday from criticism that it would increase the US deficit, saying better trade deals and economic growth would offset the costs.

“We will do trade deals that are going to make up for a tremendous amount of the deficit. We are going to be doing trade deals that are going to be much better trade deals,” Trump said.