Democrats say Trump needs to be involved in shutdown talks. He's shown
little interest in doing so
[October 17, 2025]
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and SEUNG MIN KIM
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is showing little urgency to
broker a compromise that would end the government shutdown, even as
Democrats insist no breakthrough is possible without his direct
involvement.
Three weeks in, Congress is at a standstill. The House hasn’t been in
session for a month, and senators left Washington on Thursday frustrated
by the lack of progress. Republican leaders are refusing to negotiate
until a short-term funding bill to reopen the government is passed,
while Democrats say they won’t agree without guarantees on extending
health insurance subsidies.
For now, Trump appears content to stay on the sidelines.
He spent the week celebrating an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal he led,
hosted a remembrance event for conservative activist Charlie Kirk and
refocused attention on the Russia-Ukraine war. Meanwhile, his
administration has been managing the shutdown in unconventional ways,
continuing to pay the troops while laying off other federal employees.
Asked Thursday whether he was willing to deploy his dealmaking
background on the shutdown, Trump seemed uninterested.
“Well, look, I mean, all we want to do is just extend. We don’t want
anything, we just want to extend, live with the deal they had,” he said
in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. Later Thursday, he
criticized Democratic health care demands as “crazy,” adding, “We’re
just not going to do it.”
Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Democrats must first
vote to reopen the government, “then we can have serious conversations
about health care.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune echoed that approach before leaving
for the weekend, saying Trump is “ready to weigh in and sit down with
the Democrats or whomever, once the government opens up.”
Still, frustration is starting to surface even within Trump’s own party,
where lawmakers acknowledge little happens in Congress without his
direction.
Leaving the Capitol on Thursday, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski said, “We’re
not making much headway this week.” For things to progress, Murkowski
acknowledged Trump may need to get more involved: “I think he’s an
important part of it.”
“I think there are some folks in his administration that are kind of
liking the fact that Congress really has no role right now,” she added.
“I don’t like that. I don’t like that at all.”
Trump has not been slowed by the shutdown
While Congress has been paralyzed by the shutdown, Trump has moved
rapidly to enact his vision of the federal government.
He has called budget chief Russ Vought the “grim reaper,” and Vought has
taken the opportunity to withhold billions of dollars for infrastructure
projects and lay off thousands of federal workers, signaling that
workforce reductions could become even more drastic.
At the same time, the administration has acted unilaterally to fund
Trump’s priorities, including paying the military this week, easing
pressure on what could have been one of the main deadlines to end the
shutdown.
Some of these moves, particularly the layoffs and funding shifts, have
been criticized as illegal and are facing court challenges. A federal
judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the administration from firing
workers during the shutdown, ruling that the cuts appeared politically
motivated and were carried out without sufficient justification.
And with Congress focused on the funding fight, lawmakers have had
little time to debate other issues.
In the House, Johnson has said the House won’t return until Democrats
approve the funding bill and has refused to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita
Grijalva. Democrats say the move is to prevent her from becoming the
218th signature on a discharge petition aimed at forcing a vote on
releasing documents related to the sex trafficking investigation into
Jeffrey Epstein.
So far, the shutdown has shown little impact on public opinion.
An AP-NORC poll released Thursday found that 3 in 10 U.S. adults have a
“somewhat” or “very” favorable view of the Democratic Party, similar to
an AP-NORC poll from September. Four in 10 have a “somewhat” or “very”
favorable view of the Republican Party, largely unchanged from last
month.
Democrats want Trump at the table. Republicans would rather he stay
out
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem
Jeffries have said Republicans have shown little seriousness in
negotiating an end to the shutdown.
“Leader Thune has not come to me with any proposal at this point,”
Schumer said Thursday.
[to top of second column]
|
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, and Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speak to reporters outside
the Senate chamber as they charge President Donald Trump and the
Republicans with the government shutdown, at the Capitol in
Washington, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Frustrated with congressional leaders, Democrats are increasingly
looking to Trump.
At a CNN town hall Wednesday night featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
and Sen. Bernie Sanders, both repeatedly called for the president’s
involvement when asked why negotiations had stalled.
“President Trump is not talking. That is the problem,” Sanders said.
Ocasio-Cortez added that Trump should more regularly “be having
congressional leaders in the White House.”
Democrats’ focus on Trump reflects both his leadership style — which
allows little to happen in Congress without his approval — and the
reality that any funding bill needs the president’s signature to
become law.
This time, however, Republican leaders who control the House and
Senate are resisting any push for Trump to intervene.
“You can’t negotiate when somebody’s got a hostage,” said South
Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who added that Trump getting involved would
allow Democrats to try the same tactic in future legislative fights.
Trump has largely followed that guidance. After previously saying he
would be open to negotiating with Democrats on health insurance
subsidies, he walked it back after Republican leaders suggested he
misspoke.
And that's unlikely to change for now. Trump has no plans to
personally intervene to broker a deal with Democrats, according to a
senior White House official granted anonymity to discuss private
conversations. The official added that the only stopgap funding bill
that Democrats can expect is the one already on the table.
“The President is happy to have a conversation about health care
policy, but he will not do so while the Democrats are holding the
American people hostage,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson
said Thursday.
A product of the Congress Trump has molded
In his second term, Trump has taken a top-down approach, leaving
little in Congress to move without his approval.
“What’s obvious to me is that Mike Johnson and John Thune don't do
much without Donald Trump telling them what to do,” said Democratic
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
His hold is particularly strong in the GOP-led House, where Speaker
Mike Johnson effectivelyowes his job to Trump, and relies on his
influence to power through difficult legislative fights.
When Republicans have withheld votes on Trump’s priorities in
Congress, he’s called them on the phone or summoned them to his
office to directly sway them. When that doesn’t work, he has vowed
to unseat them in the next election. It’s led many Democrats to
believe the only path to an agreement runs through the White House
and not through the speaker’s office.
Democrats also want assurances from the White House that they won't
backtrack on an agreement. The White House earlier this year cut out
the legislative branch entirely with a $4.9 billion cut to foreign
aid in August through a legally dubious process known as a “pocket
rescission.” And before he even took office late last year, Trump
and ally Elon Musk blew up a bipartisan funding agreement that both
parties had negotiated.
“I think we need to see ink on paper. I think we need to see
legislation. I think we need to see votes,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “I
don’t accept pinky promises. That’s not the business that I’m in.”
Both parties also see little reason to fold under public pressure,
believing they are winning the messaging battle.
“Everybody thinks they’re winning,” Murkowski said. “Nobody is
winning when everybody’s losing. And that’s what’s happening right
now. The American public is losing.”
—
Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this
report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
