AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
Top Democrats emerged from a White House meeting with President Trump believing a health care deal might be possible, even if a government shutdown occurs first. Democrats felt Trump was receptive to their concerns, possibly unaware of the full ramifications of healthcare cuts. The White House clarified that any deal hinges on Democrats agreeing to keep the government open. Trump suggested Vice President Vance mediate negotiations, and acknowledged potential blame for a shutdown. Despite this, both sides remain far apart, with the White House threatening mass firings if Democrats don’t capitulate, increasing the likelihood of a government shutdown.
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
Top Democrats emerged from a White House meeting believing that President Donald Trump may eventually cut a deal on their biggest demand — even if it first requires shutting down the government to get it.
“We laid out to the president some of the consequences of what’s happening in health care,” the New York Democrat said following the Oval Office sit-down with Trump, adding later that “it seemed from his body language and some of the things he said that he was not aware of the ramifications.”
The health care discussion left Democrats feeling like there could be an opening amid what both Democratic and Republican leaders characterized as a meeting that brought them no closer to averting a shutdown early Wednesday, two Democratic sources familiar with the meeting said. One of those sources said Trump appeared open to both a short-term deal as well as something bigger on health care.
The White House soon clarified that any deal could only come after Democrats agree to keep the government running.
“The president wants a clean CR and he wants to keep the government open,” a White House official said of Trump’s posture in the meeting, referring to Republicans’ funding measure.
At one point, Trump suggested that Vice President JD Vance insert himself more directly into the Hill negotiations, the second source familiar with the meeting said. At another point, Schumer told reporters after, Trump acknowledged he could take some of the blame for a shutdown. CNN has asked the White House about those accounts.
“We’re not going to support a partisan spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries told Democrats at a caucus meeting later Monday evening that he was surprised by how much listening Trump had done at the White House gathering, a source in the room told CNN. That’s in part why some Democrats are feeling like the president hadn’t been given the full picture on the Obamacare subsidies and health care, another source in the room told CNN. “Jeffries seemed encouraged,” that source added.
Still, the two sides remain very far apart on reaching any sort of deal.
In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized Democrats for having “chosen to pick a partisan fight and shut the government down as the clock is running out to score political points.”
The diverging takeaways from the meeting have only left both sides further dug in — and sharply raised the odds of a standoff that could shutter the government for days and force thousands of federal workers to go without pay.
The White House, in an effort to force Democrats to capitulate on their demands, has also threatened mass firings across the government aimed at permanently whittling down the federal workforce.
While that all-or-nothing approach has raised worries even among rank-and-file Democrats about the political fallout if voters end up blaming them for shutdown, Schumer and Jeffries on Monday sought to project total commitment.
“It’s now in the president’s hands,” Schumer said. “(Trump) can avoid a shutdown if he gets the Republican leaders to go along with what we want. And if they don’t, the American people are going to know.”
