After the government had been shut down for nearly a month, a conspicuously quiet President Donald Trump finally weighed in with a prescription for how to end it.
Republican congressional leaders are probably wishing he hadn’t.
Trump late Thursday night urged Republicans to end the shutdown by invoking the so-called “nuclear option” — that is, getting rid of the filibuster and 60-vote threshold in the Senate. This would allow Republicans to pass things on party-line votes in the GOP-controlled Senate.
“BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE GONE STONE COLD ‘CRAZY,’ THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
That Trump would call for this is not terribly surprising; he has spent years occasionally urging Republican leaders to scrap the filibuster. Nor is it particularly likely to provide an actual offramp in the shutdown; those same GOP leaders have steadfastly declined Trump’s entreaties before and rejected this idea repeatedly in recent weeks. It’s not even clear whether enough senators would vote for such a change if GOP leaders went along with it.
So practically speaking, it’s a pointless interjection from the president.
But it does matter in one way: It’s Trump yet again inserting himself into these kinds of talks in ways that are thoroughly unhelpful to his party. And this has become a trend.
The reason it’s unhelpful in this case is that it legitimizes Democrats’ talking point that Republicans could end this shutdown any time they want to. And that could make it harder for Republicans to shake the blame they’ve been saddled with.
It’s been pretty remarkable how much Americans have continued to blame Republicans more than Democrats for the shutdown, despite it being Democrats who are seeking the concession (i.e. an extension of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies). A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Thursday showed 45% of Americans mainly blamed Trump and the GOP, versus 33% who held Democrats responsible.
To be clear, the idea that Republicans could end the shutdown anytime they want is a vastly oversimplified talking point. Yes, all they need is a majority of the Senate to nuke the filibuster. But there are myriad reasons to avoid invoking that nuclear option. And Republican leaders have pointed to them for weeks — specifically invoking what they fear Democrats could do without that 60-vote threshold if they regain control of the chamber.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune earlier this month called the filibuster “a bulwark against a lot of really bad things happening to the country.” (His spokesperson on Friday said the leader’s position is “unchanged.”) Fellow Senate GOP leader John Barrasso of Wyoming argued that nixing the filibuster would ultimately allow Democrats to make Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia into states, with two senators apiece, and to pack the Supreme Court. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said it would mean there would be “no stumbling blocks or hurdles at all in the way of turning us into a communist country.”
But Trump is now legitimizing blaming his own party for the shutdown because they won’t have done the thing he told them to do.
And if you’re a Republican in Congress, you’ve probably got déjà vu about now. That’s because Trump does stuff like this a lot – especially during shutdown debates.
In early 2018, Trump contradicted his own spokeswoman’s statement of support for a short-term continuing resolution, making a late demand to scrap an extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Trump then pulled another 11th-hour shift a few weeks later, demanding immigration concessions that hadn’t previously been a focal point of leaders’ efforts.
Before he was sworn in to his second term in January, Trump and Elon Musk combined in December to play the role of legislative arsonists again. GOP leaders had negotiated a bipartisan deal to avert a shutdown. But then Musk started waging war against it on X. Trump then joined him and threw another wrench in the cogs, suddenly demanding a debt ceiling increase that hadn’t really been a part of discussions.
Trump has regularly given congressional Republicans fits in these situations – so much so that they’ll occasionally acknowledge their frustrations publicly.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in early 2018 practically pleaded with Trump to engage in the process and provide some direction. “As soon as we figure out what he is for, then I would be convinced that we were not just spinning our wheels,” the Kentucky Republican said at the time.
After Trump threw a late grenade in the process in December, Sen. Kevin Cramer said he was “very frustrated.”
When CNN’s Manu Raju asked the North Dakota Republican if he wished Trump had signaled his demands earlier, Cramer responded dryly: “Yeah, I mean, maybe he hadn’t thought about it until just today. But yeah, that would have been very helpful.”
None of this means Trump’s late entry into this shutdown debate is a game-changer. Perhaps GOP leaders will get through to Trump that this strategy isn’t particularly helpful – as they appear to have with other Republicans who occasionally suggested this route – and he’ll drop it.
But his late-night social media demand has at the very least put Republicans in the uncomfortable position of explaining why they don’t attempt to do the thing that is technically in their power to end the shutdown.
And we’re already seeing Republicans try and massage this issue away.
“What you’re seeing is an expression of the president’s anger at the situation,” Johnson said Friday.
Perhaps, but most presidents don’t lash out and kneecap their side’s negotiating power just because they get frustrated.
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