Trump tells Democrats no meeting over shutdown until government reopens

President Donald Trump rejected a request from leading Democratic lawmakers to meet until the three-week-old U.S. government shutdown is brought to an end on Tuesday.

“I’d like to meet with both of them, but there’s one condition – I’ll only do so once they agree to reopen the country,” Trump told reporters, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had invited him to meet “anytime, anyplace.”

Nearly all Democratic senators, except for three, are withholding support for the Republican-led temporary funding bill unless Trump and sufficient Republican lawmakers agree to extend an enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credit due to expire on 31 December.

Without the ACA extension, millions of Americans face steep rises in healthcare premiums, which Democrats have warned could amount to “a healthcare crisis.”

Republicans, who control Congress, have begun discussing possible ways forward in the stalemate with Democrats, who are refusing to back the short-term funding bill until the healthcare subsidy is renewed.

Senator Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said on Tuesday that Republicans would likely need to extend their stopgap funding plan to reopen the government and maintain operations beyond its current 21 November deadline.

“There’s a recognition that we’ll have to extend it because we’ve wasted all these weeks,” said the Maine Republican, adding that she does not want temporary funding measures to continue into 2026.

Her comments echoed those of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who acknowledged on Monday that more time would be needed to complete the 12 annual spending bills funding the federal government’s discretionary programmes.

Thune will need support from several Senate Democrats to pass the temporary funding measure approved by the House of Representatives last month. Republicans currently hold a slim 53–47 majority in the 100-member Senate, with most legislation requiring 60 votes to advance.

Thousands of federal workers have been furloughed since 1 October, when the new fiscal year began and funding for about $1.7 trillion of agency operations – roughly a quarter of annual federal spending – expired.

Trump met with Republican senators on Tuesday afternoon, though the extension of the ACA tax credit was not discussed, according to Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota. Republicans reportedly plan to revisit the issue later in the year.

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