President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that he has canceled a meeting to discuss government funding with senior lawmakers scheduled for Thursday, raising the odds that parts of the federal government will shut down when the 2026 fiscal year begins next week.
On his social media platform, Trump wrote, “After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have rejected a Republican plan to pass a “clean” short-term funding bill to keep the government open starting October 1, arguing that Congress needs to address the looming expiration of enhanced Obamacare subsidies in any funding package. Republicans have refused to consider the issue, resulting in a funding stalemate with a week to go before a shutdown.
In response to Trump’s abrupt decision, which came less than 24 hours after a meeting plan was announced, Jeffries taunted the president, saying on social media, “Trump Always Chickens Out” – a phrase coined earlier this year in reference to the president’s pattern of announcing huge new tariffs and then pulling back before they take effect, generating enormous churn in the stock market. (Trump has dismissed the “TACO” moniker as “nasty” and defended his approach as a negotiating tactic.)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also sought to lay the blame for the rapidly approaching shutdown on the president, saying Trump “would rather throw a tantrum than do his job” and is “running away from the negotiating table before he even gets there.” Schumer added, “Donald Trump will own the shutdown.”
What’s next: Trump said he would meet with Democratic leaders, but only if they “get serious about the future of our Nation” and “agree to the Principles in this Letter.”
Trump’s social media post includes a number of claims and accusations, which may be difficult for Democrats to parse or agree to. Among other things, Trump accused Democrats of demanding “over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens,” allowing undocumented migrants “to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits,” and seeking to “essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”
If Democrats fail to meet his demands, Trump warned that “it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand” before a funding deal can be made. Trump told Democrats that “the ball is in your court.”
For now, Washington appears to be headed for a shutdown, with no clear sense of how it might end. “Trump is not in concessions mode,” former Republican lawmaker Vin Weber told The Hill. “The Charlie Kirk thing has got conservatives with a certain edge to them now. I doubt very much the president is going to be in a mood to make concessions, which his base doesn’t like.”