Trump Cancels Meeting With Dems, Edging Closer to Shutdown

Trump at his Cabinet meeting
Reuters
By Michael Rainey

Happy Tuesday! In a nearly hour-long speech at the United Nations General Assembly today, President Donald Trump criticized the international body for alleged failings high and low, touching on everything from a broken teleprompter to the UN’s involvement with the global migration crisis. Trump also advised nations of the world to stay away from the “green energy scam,” saying that the idea of climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”

Trump softened his tone later in the day, thanking UN Secretary-General António Guterres for treating “us with great respect,” adding, “Our country is behind the United Nations 100%.”

Here’s your fiscal update.

Trump Cancels Negotiations With Democrats, Raising Odds of a Shutdown

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.”

Judge Orders Trump Administration to Restore Frozen Grants for UCLA

A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to restore millions of dollars in research grants that have been withheld from the University of California, Los Angeles.

In a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin ruled that grant terminations made by agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Health and Human Services be reversed.

Although the ruling is temporary, it nevertheless provides a victory for UCLA and the rest of the University of California system, which has been locked in a battle with the Trump administration over a litany of allegations, including that the schools failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students during protests over the war in Gaza in 2024 and used federal grants to advance a “woke” agenda.  

Last month, Trump’s Justice Department proposed a settlement that would require UCLA to pay $1 billion to the federal government in order to restore $584 million in research grants, plus another $172 million to compensate victims.

The total value of the restored grants under Monday’s ruling is unclear, but earlier litigation suggests that the number exceeds $500 million.

Tariffs Will Slow US Economy in 2026, OECD Warns

The U.S. economy will continue to slow in 2026, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday, citing the ongoing effects of the higher tariffs President Trump imposed on trading partners around the world.

The OECD said tariffs have not been as bad as initially feared but will nevertheless weigh on growth over the coming quarters.

In June, the intergovernmental organization, which has 38 member nations with relatively advanced economies, estimated that U.S. gross domestic product would grow by 1.6% in 2025, a sharp drop from the 2.8% rate recorded in 2024. The group now expects GDP growth to hit 1.8% this year, a modest improvement. Its estimate for growth in 2026 remains at 1.5%.

“The impacts of higher tariff rates are yet to be fully felt in the U.S. economy,” the OECD said, per The Wall Street Journal. “This reflects a combination of factors, with firms making use of inventories and ample profit margins to avoid or absorb the initial impact of higher tariffs, lags between the announcement and imposition of higher tariff rates, and the exemption of goods already in transit from higher tariff rates.”

  

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