Deal to reopen government falters over Democrats’ distrust of Trump

Democratic support for a potential deal to reopen the government has crumbled because of deep mistrust among Senate Democrats over whether they can trust President Trump to act in good faith to extend health insurance subsidies or to stop firing federal workers.

Senate Democrats on Thursday rejected an emerging proposal to reopen the government that would have linked a stopgap funding bill known as a continuing resolution to three full-year appropriations bills funding military construction, veterans’ affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the legislative branch.

Democratic senators discussed the proposal at lunch and concluded that it did not include strong enough assurances that Trump and the Republican-controlled House would renew enhanced health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that are due to expire in January.

“You got a bunch of keys and you’re trying to find the right key to fit a lock. We just have to have another key,” said a Democratic senator who attended the meeting.

While Democratic senators on Thursday rejected the proposal hashed out by a group of centrists led by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Angus King (I-Maine), they’re still looking for a way to end the shutdown soon.

But Democrats say that their rocky relationship with Trump is a huge obstacle.  

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) needs at least eight Democratic votes to reopen the government, which has been shut for 37 days.

Right now, he is five Democratic votes short of what he needs. He has failed to assure nervous Democrats that Trump would embrace a proposal to extend health insurance subsidies beyond December.

Thune has scheduled a vote on Friday on a House-passed government funding measure with the intention of amending it to add the compromise proposal that Republican and Democratic centrists hashed out in recent days. The vote is expected to fail.

Democrats say that Thune can’t promise that Trump will stop freezing federal funds appropriated by Congress or that he will abandon the use of pocket rescissions to claw back appropriated monies.

And they worry that Trump will continue to fire federal workers if they vote to reopen federal departments and agencies.

The Democratic senator who attended Thursday’s decisive caucus meeting said Trump “hasn’t shown any inclination at all” to reach a deal with Democrats to reduce health care costs.

Instead, Trump has pressed Thune to change the Senate’s rules to eliminate the filibuster, which would completely sideline Senate Democrats.  

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who participated in the talks to reopen the government, said he trusts Thune to stick to a deal but he doesn’t trust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is closely allied to Trump and the MAGA base, to do the same.

“I trust John Thune but here’s a fact, it’s beyond his control  if we … get an enforceable agreement because we have to get buy-in from the House of Representatives,” he said on the Senate floor.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) said that Trump refused to stick to the deal that Senate Republicans negotiated during the 2018-2019 government shutdown. That standoff was triggered by a fight over the U.S.-Mexico border wall and immigration policy.

“We had a bipartisan negotiation to solve the problem, came up with a bill — Sen. [Susan] Collins [R-Maine] was involved — and, at the very last minute, President Trump pulled out the rug out from under all the negotiators and said, ‘There’ll be no bill,’” Durbin recounted from Trump’s first term.

Some Democrats still have shellshock from this summer, when Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) negotiated with Thune a potential deal to confirm more than 140 of Trump’s stalled executive branch nominees.

White House officials were looped in on the talks but when Trump got briefed on the emerging deal, he blew it up and told Schumer in a post on Truth Social to “go to hell.”

Trump dismissed the Democratic negotiating position in August as “egregious and unprecedented.”

He’s now using the same heated rhetoric, declaring in a “60 Minutes” interview that he “won’t be extorted.”

Instead of negotiating with Democrats, Trump is now pressing Senate Republicans to change the chamber’s rules to circumvent Democratic opposition.

Trump on Wednesday ignored the latest letter from Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) asking for a meeting.

“Democrats stand ready to meet with you face to face, anytime and anyplace,” they wrote.

Trump answered with silence.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said that Trump’s attempts to bully Democrats has instead emboldened Democratic to stand their ground.

“It’s made it easier for people to stick together that Trump has treated the whole process with such disrespect — leaving the country, putting out videos of the Democratic leaders with sombreros on, refusing to meet, refusing to engage,” Kaine said. “Trump seems to think in his mind I can bludgeon you by threatening you. That doesn’t really work.”

At the start of the shutdown, Trump posted an AI-manipulated video on social media that falsely depicted Schumer lamenting the political woes of the Democratic Party and depicted Jeffries wearing a crudely-animated sombrero and handlebar mustache.

Many Democrats found the gag video highly offensive and it set the tone for the weeks that followed.

Swing-state Democrats who might be inclined to vote for a deal to reopen the government are holding back because they don’t trust Trump.

“He’s certainly not helping,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said of Trump. “He’s the one who said several years ago that if you’re in a shutdown fight, it’s the president’s fault.

“It’s the president’s job to convene everybody and get to a reasonable solution and he’s doing the exact opposite. It’s who he is,” he added.

Warnock said he was rattled by Trump’s post on Truth Social earlier in the week declaring that food assistance benefits would only get paid once the government ends. The statement appeared to defy two federal court orders from days earlier.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later softened that statement, telling reporters that the administration is “fully complying” with the court directives.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who has been a key player in past bipartisan negotiations, is staying out of the talks to reopen the government. He told The Hill that he doesn’t have confidence that Trump will adhere to whatever deal Senate negotiators reach.

“I don’t have a lot of faith that any of my traditional partners would be willing to go against Trump,” he said.  

Democrats view Trump’s support for a deal to address the expiring health insurance subsidies as critical to securing their vote.

Without Trump’s public approval, Democrats don’t think Thune can deliver 60 Senate votes to keep health insurance premiums in check or, if it passes the Senate, a vote in the House.

Thune acknowledged Thursday that his power is limited.

“I can’t, and I’ve made this very clear to them, I can’t guarantee them an outcome. I can guarantee them a process. They can litigate the issue, get the vote on the floor,” he said.

“Presumably they have some way of getting a vote in the House at some point but I can’t speak for the House,” Thune added. “And obviously I can’t guarantee an outcome here.”

Johnson on Thursday declined to promise a vote on a bill to extend the ACA subsidies, arguing that the House has already done its job by passing a clean bill to fund the government through Nov. 21.

Peters, one of the leading centrist Democratic negotiators, said the failure of Republican leaders to promise a House vote on the subsidies was a “significant problem.”  

Al Weaver contributed.