Members of the GOP can’t believe it. Trump and Schumer are about to do the unthinkable.
And Republicans have been blindsided after Donald Trump caved in to Chuck Schumer’s demand.
Donald Trump will sit down with Democrat bigwigs Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer on Monday. This comes as the federal government teeters on the edge of a shutdown, with lights flickering out by Tuesday night if these swamp creatures don’t get their act together.
House Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana and Senate Majority Leader John Thune from South Dakota will tag along, turning this into a full showdown between real fighters for the American people and the usual Washington sellouts. Everyone’s racing against that brutal 11:59 p.m. deadline.
In a desperate joint statement, Jeffries and Schumer whined, “Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people.” They kept pounding the panic button: “We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”
Trump isn’t some pushover like the RINOs they’ve dealt with before. Last week, he smartly ditched a planned chat with these Dem leaders after huddling with Johnson and Thune.
Fast forward to Wednesday, and Trump’s sharp-eyed Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought fired off a no-nonsense memo to federal agency bosses. He ordered them to whip up lists of deadweight employees ready for permanent pink slips if the shutdown hits
Schumer, smelling his own party’s doom, dialed up Thune on Friday and begged for a White House powwow, according to what sources detailed to the New York Post.
Over in the House, Republicans did their job like patriots, passing a straightforward stopgap bill to keep the doors open until November 21. No pork, no nonsense—just a clean bill to buy time and get back to draining the swamp.
But what do the Senate Democrats do? They slam the brakes with their precious filibuster, needing 60 votes to override their obstruction. It’s classic Democrat dirty tricks, holding the working man’s paycheck hostage for their radical wishlist.
These leftists are howling for massive giveaways on healthcare, like gutting the smart Medicaid fixes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—now rebranded as the Working Families Tax Cut Act—and propping up those bloated Affordable Care Act subsidies.
A crew of House and Senate Republicans have floated keeping some subsidies alive, but only if some real fixes are slapped on to stop the bleeding.
Thune and Johnson aren’t budging an inch, insisting that the shutdown fight is kept separate from other legislation issues. Thune laid it out plain on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday: “The deal is not ready to be done.” He nailed the shutdown reality: “The government is going to close on Tuesday night at midnight. Let’s keep the government open. Let’s go to work on that issue.”
Diving into the ACA mess, Thune didn’t hold back: “These were enhancements. And it’s a program, as I said, that is fraught with waste, fraud, and abuse,” he said. “It’s a program in desperate need of reform.” Johnson’s got the same fire, vowing the House will circle back to ACA tweaks later this year, right when those subsidies are set to sunset.
Monday’s huddle might just be the Dems’ last-ditch bailout, a way for Jeffries and Schumer to save face after their activist mobs have been torching them online for folding too easy.
Remember Schumer’s epic flop back in March? He waved through a GOP stopgap to dodge a shutdown then, and the howls from his own side were deafening. Primary challengers started circling like vultures, threatening to boot him if he runs again in 2028.
The House is kicking back on recess right now, while the Senate drags its feet before limping back this week. Johnson’s playing hardball, refusing to yank lawmakers to D.C. on Monday or Tuesday.
At the end of the day, Congress has one basic job: fund the government for the new fiscal year that will kick off on October 1. Screw it up, and boom—partial shutdown, with federal workers furloughed and national parks locked up.
Trump’s leading the charge here, forcing these entrenched elites to the table on his terms.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
