Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump vents as Dems claim budget victory
President suggests a September ‘shutdown’ may be needed
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, smarting at the notion that he was outmaneuvered by Democrats in their first real legislative showdown, is musing openly about seeking to scrap one of the last remaining checks the minority party has, even suggesting he might welcome a government shutdown this fall to further that end.
From the Rose Garden and his Twitter account Tuesday, Trump did little to hide his frustration with hardening conventional wisdom that the $1 trillion spending plan Congress expects to vote on this week represented a setback for his governing agenda, despite his party having the strongest grip on power in the capital in more than a decade.
Meanwhile, members of both parties were left at a loss to explain how what had on Monday appeared to be a rare bipartisan achievement in Washington had evolved 24 hours later into the source of recriminations.
As has often been the case with the president, this episode began with a morning series of postings on social media, in which Trump seemed to concede the funding package he signed off on over the weekend was full of concessions to Democrats.
He then laid out options that could absolve him of the need for such compromise in the future: for voters to swell the party’s ranks in the chamber to overcome the 60-vote threshold to overcome filibusters, or for Senate Republicans to eliminate once and for all the ability of any senator to demand a three-fifths majority to advance major legislation.
He capped that with a remark that seemed to embrace a fiscal crisis as a way to push his agenda.
“Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!” the president tweeted.
Trump will sign the $1.1 trillion bill, the White House budget office said.
It said in an official policy statement that the administration is pleased with additional money for the Pentagon and border security, though it’s “concerned” that lawmakers ignored Trump’s request that the spending increases be accompanied by cuts elsewhere in the budget.
Aides would later say Trump bristled at comments from Democrats claiming victory, as it became clear when the president appeared in the Rose Garden.
Flanked by members of the Air Force Academy football team in military dress, Trump boasted of the deal’s new, higher spending levels on defense, “historic investments in border security,” and funding for charter school programs. Put together, he said at the event congratulating the team, “our Republican team had its own victory under the radar,” Trump said.
“And we didn’t do any touting like the Democrats did,” he added.
Democrats had indeed been quick Monday to hail provisions of the spending bill that protected their priorities. But legislative leaders from both parties were also eager to sell the package as an example of compromise that was possible if all sides acted in good faith.
“This deal is exactly how Washington should work when it is bipartisan: both parties negotiated and came to an agreement on a piece of legislation that we can each support. It is truly a shame that the president is degrading it because he didn’t get 100 percent of what he wanted,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said on the Senate floor.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., groused at having to respond to another presidential Twitter flurry as he faced reporters shortly after the tweets were posted.
“When you look at the bill, there’s a lot of good conservative wins here,” he insisted.
On Monday morning, Trump had indicated he was satisfied with the agreement and noted both sides could claim victory. But by late Monday, Trump’s budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, was dispatched to the White House briefing room to proclaim victories for the administration.
“I’d be hard-pressed to figure how we could fund more of the priorities,” he said then.
By the time the budget chief spoke to reporters again Tuesday afternoon, he attacked Democrats for tainting future negotiations.
“The president is frustrated with the fact that he negotiated in good faith with the Democrats and they went out to try and spike the football and make him look bad,” Mulvaney said. If Democrats don’t change that posture, a shutdown “may be inevitable,” he added.