President Donald Trump on Tuesday canceled a planned White House meeting with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), less than 24 hours after the session was announced.
In a Truth Social post, Trump accused Democrats of making “unserious and ridiculous” demands in return for their votes to keep the government open, adding that “no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive.”
“They are threatening to shut down the Government of the United States unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens (A monumental cost!), force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody,” he wrote.
The meeting, confirmed by the White House on Monday, was expected to focus on efforts to prevent a shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. Schumer and Jeffries had said they planned to use the session to emphasize rising costs and what they called a “Republican health care crisis,” warning that a lack of bipartisan talks would lead to a “Republican-caused shutdown.”
The talks were canceled amid a standoff over dueling stopgap spending measures. Democrats last week proposed a continuing resolution through Oct. 31 that would permanently extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, reverse certain health care provisions in Republican-backed law, and add new oversight of executive spending. Republicans are pushing a longer measure through Nov. 21 that they describe as a clean extension of current funding levels, with limited exceptions for nutrition programs, agriculture reporting, and additional security money.
Trump, who had urged Republicans to support their stopgap plan, said Tuesday he would be willing to meet with Schumer and Jeffries only if they “get serious about the future of our Nation.”
Democrats responded swiftly. The Democratic National Committee said Trump had “backed out of negotiations with Democrats” and greenlit an impending government shutdown. DNC Chair Ken Martin said Trump was intent on “raising health care costs for our nation’s families.”
Jeffries told House Democrats in a “Dear Colleague” letter that Trump had “chickened out and cancelled the meeting,” and said House Republicans’ canceling votes next week despite the Sept. 30 deadline was “the height of irresponsibility.” He said Democrats will reconvene in Washington on Sept. 29 to prepare for a possible lapse in funding.
