Trump suggests change in rules

President: U.S. needs ‘shutdown’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States needs “a good ‘shutdown’” this fall to fix a “mess” in the Senate, signaling on Twitter his displeasure over a bill to keep government operations running until this fall.

But Trump and Republican leaders also praised the stopgap measure as a major accomplishment and a sign of Trump’s masterful negotiating with Democrats.

The president and his allies issued the contradictory statements ahead of key votes in Congress on the $1.1 trillion spending bill. After advocating for a future shutdown, the president hailed the budget agreement as a boost for the military, border security and other top priorities.

The spending bill is set for a House vote today, when it’s expected to win widespread bipartisan support, although GOP conservatives have said they oppose the measure, calling it a missed opportunity.

Trump suggested that he might move to reverse long-standing Senate rules that effectively require 60 votes to approve most major pieces of legislation.

Republicans control 52 seats in that chamber.

The declarations, in a pair of posts on Twitter, appeared to be aimed at a spending package that Congress is working to clear this week, but which fails to accomplish many of Trump’s stated goals. No money is allocated in it to build a wall along the southern border. The White House said Tuesday that the president will sign the bill if it passes.

The Twitter messages were also an indication of the degree to which bipartisan negotiations in Congress on the spending bill and others, including a health care overhaul that appeared Tuesday to be stalled again, have bedeviled Trump in the early stage of his presidency and have forced him to bow to political realities to which he had insisted he was immune.

“The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there!” Trump said in one post, an apparent reference to the spending package.

The solution, he said, was either to elect more Republican senators in 2018, the next midterm elections, “or change the rules now to 51%.” That appeared to refer to scrapping the so-called filibuster that allows any senator to insist on a three-fifths vote, rather than a simple majority, to act on legislative matters.

Republicans already moved last month to eliminate the use of the tactic for Supreme Court confirmations, allowing approval of Justice Neil Gorsuch over near-unanimous Democratic opposition to him.

“Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!” Trump said.

DEFENDING PRESIDENT

The Twitter posts ran counter to an effort by the White House to portray the spending agreement as a major victory for the president, an argument Trump made just hours later in the Rose Garden when he declared, “This is what winning looks like.”

He cited large spending increases for the military and border security in the measure, claiming that those resources were “enough money to make a down payment on the border wall,” despite the fact that the bill provides no funding for the structure.

“Our Republican team had its own victory — under the radar,” Trump said at the ceremony honoring the Air Force Academy football team, calling the bill “a clear win for the American people.”

It was a continuation of a public push by his advisers to counteract the notion that Trump had been forced into an agreement he dislikes. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney briefed reporters twice within a few hours to adamantly declare the administration’s success. He was joined at his second briefing by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

“They wanted to try and make this president look like he could not govern,” Mulvaney told reporters in a chaotic call that featured a shouting budget director, dueling hold music and reporters frantically trying to figure out how to ask questions (mostly without success). “They wanted to make this president look like he did not know what he was doing, and he beat them on that at the very, very highest level.”

Democrats, Mulvaney added, “were desperate to show that we were not reasonable, and we completely destroyed that narrative by negotiating this deal. This is a huge victory for the president.”

He added that Congress needs to return to the practice of passing one-year appropriations bills and sending them to the White House for approval, not continuing the recent practice of lurching from one stopgap spending bill to the next.

Asked how the president would define a “good shutdown,” Mulvaney suggested “it would be one that fixes this town.”

“This is a change-agent president, and he’s going to change Washington, D.C.,” Mulvaney said. “And if it takes a shutdown, that’s what it’s going to take.”

Trump’s embrace of such a disruptive event came days after he accused Senate Democrats of seeking that same outcome and obstructing majority Republicans during budget negotiations.

Critics blasted Trump for publicly courting a shutdown — no sitting president has called for the government to be shut down like this.

“President Trump may not like what he sees in this budget deal, but it’s dangerous and irresponsible to respond by calling for a shutdown,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. “Hopefully, Republicans in Congress will do for the next budget what they did for this one: ignore President Trump’s demands, work with Democrats, and get it done.”

Indeed, Republicans appeared eager to ignore Trump’s latest outburst and focus on an agreement they said was worth supporting.

“How many times have I had this: ‘Do you agree with a tweet this morning?’” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., joked after being asked about the president’s Twitter statements.

Ryan said he did “share the president’s frustration” but noted that bipartisan support was required for spending measures.

“Having said all that, I feel very good about the wins we got with the administration in this bill,” Ryan said.

On Tuesday, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, praised the spending bill, which he said the Senate would vote on later this week. He portrayed it as a win for his party.

“This legislation will promote a number of American and conservative priorities,” he said, noting its attendant funding increases for border security and the military, and cuts to climate-control programs championed by former President Barack Obama’s administration.

Democrats said Trump’s actions ensured that partisan rancor would continue to hang over Capitol Hill in the coming months.

“Threatening to shut down the government, on the heels of a successful, bipartisan agreement, is a sour and shameful note to kick off negotiations” for the coming year, said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. “I hope the president does not seriously wish to have the consequences of a government shutdown resting squarely on his shoulders.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was “deeply disappointed” in Trump’s calls for a shutdown.

“It is truly a shame that the president is degrading it because he didn’t get 100 percent of what he wanted,” Schumer said of the spending bill. He went on to quote a Rolling Stones song to make his point, adding, “You can’t always get what you want.”

SOME DISAGREEMENT

Beyond the current budget debate, Trump’s comments seemed to augur more difficulties in the months to come, including internal rifts between the president and his own party over how to enact a policy agenda.

“I just don’t agree” with Trump’s suggestion of a shutdown, said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican, who also defended the filibuster and said he would try to stop any effort to eliminate it.

“The rules have saved us from a lot of really bad policy,” he added. “We all are into short-term gratification, but it would be a mistake in the long term.”

Cornyn noted the popular support in the chamber for a letter circulated by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, urging members to preserve the legislative filibuster. More than 60 senators have signed it.

The top Senate Republican also dismissed the idea of changing filibuster rules for a spending bill.

“It would fundamentally change the way the Senate has worked for a very long time,” McConnell said. “We’re not going to do that.”

Some House Republicans who have long chafed at the strictures of Senate procedure cheered the president’s efforts to change the rules.

“The filibuster is going the way of the dinosaur — we proved that with the Gorsuch nomination,” said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., an outspoken critic of the Senate filibuster. “I’m excited, man.”

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