Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Trump is marching the country
into a government shutdown
[September 27, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said President
Donald Trump and the Republican Party are “marching the country” into a
government shutdown over their refusal to meet with Democrats and strike
a deal to save health care funding from cuts.
Jeffries told the Associated Press in an interview late Friday that he
remained hopeful Congress could reach an agreement to prevent a federal
funding lapse next week, ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline.
But with Republicans having canceled next week’s House voting session
and Trump canceling his meeting with the Democratic leaders this week,
he said, “the onus is on Donald Trump to show some presidential
leadership.”
“Donald Trump and Republicans are chaos agents,” Jeffries said. “At
moments in time that require stable, presidential leadership, Donald
Trump is incapable of providing it.”
This shutdown, not the nation's first, could be more difficult. Trump’s
budget office this week ordered federal agencies to prepare a mass
firing of federal workers, rather than the typical temporary employee
furlough, if the federal government were to close.
The Republican leaders, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader
John Thune, say a shutdown can still be avoided if Democrats drop their
demands. Before leaving town, House Republicans approved legislation
that would keep the government funded into November, as Congress works
to finish up its regular appropriations work. But that measure failed in
the Senate, as did a Democrat alternative that included the health care
funds.
“It’s my hope that we can find resolution over the next few days and
avoid a government shutdown,” Jeffries said.
The Democratic leader, who is in line to become the House speaker if
Democrats regain the majority in next year's midterm elections, has
become the party's chief messenger in the high-stakes funding fight. The
Democrats are confronting restive voters demanding that they stand up to
the Trump administration and quit funding the White House's agenda.
Trump may not say Jeffries’ name out loud — the Democratic leader said
he was informed recently that in the past decade, since Trump entered
politics, the Republican president has not mentioned the Democrat from
Brooklyn – but Jeffries this week repeatedly name-checked him.
“Donald Trump, Get back to Washington, DC.,” Jeffries said earlier at
the U.S. Capitol, as the president attended the Ryder Cup in New York.
“Why are you at a golf event right now? And the government is four days
away from closing. That’s outrageous.”
After Trump abruptly canceled the planned meeting with him and Senate
Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Jeffries said at the Capitol, “Why did
you back out of the meeting, bro?”
Jeffries told his colleagues on a private conference call on Friday with
House Democrats to “stay the course.”
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., meets with reporters
at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, days before
federal funding runs out that could trigger a government shutdown.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Democrats are fighting to shore up health care funding, and in
particular to prevent the expiration of enhanced subsidies, put in
place during the COVID-19 crisis, that helped Americans pay for
insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Without action,
the boosted subsidy will lapse, risking premium spikes for millions
of Americans nationwide.
Republicans have said Democratic demands to roll back the Medicaid
cuts in the GOP's big tax cuts and spending bill that Trump signed
into law this summer are a nonstarter. And the GOP leaders have said
talks on the ACA subsidies can wait until the end of the year, when
they are set to expire.
“House Democrats are united,” Jeffries said. “Donald Trump and the
Republican Party are marching the country into a painful government
shutdown because they do not want to address the health care crisis
that they created.”
The Republican congressional leaders believe Democrats are heading
toward a political cliff.
“They're walking in a trap they all set for themselves,” Johnson, of
Louisiana, said during an interview on the Moon Griffon radio show
in his home state.
Johnson acknowledged he encouraged Trump not to meet with the
Democratic leaders this week after the White House had already
agreed to Thursday's scheduled meeting. Trump abruptly pulled out.
“He and I talked about it at length yesterday and the day before. I
said, look, when they get their job done, once they do the basic
governing work of keeping the government open, as president, then
you can have a meeting with him,” Johnson said on the Mike & McCarty
Show. “Of course, it might be productive at that point, but right
now, this is just a waste of his time.”
Trump has been here before. During his first term, the country
endured the longest shutdown, some 35 days over the 2018-19 winter
holiday season, as lawmakers refused his demand for funding to build
a promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Before that, the government shut down for more than two weeks in
2013, during the Obama administration, over failed Republican
efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Jeffries expects this shutdown, if it happens, would end as those
past ones did, he said.
“At the end of both of those shutdowns, Republicans came to the
conclusion that their position was unsustainable,” he said. “And in
my view, that’s exactly what will take place this time around, if
Republicans shut the government down because they want to continue
to gut the health care of everyday Americans.”
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