WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States needed “a good ‘shutdown’” this fall to force a partisan confrontation over federal spending, and suggested that he might move to reverse long-standing Senate rules that effectively require a supermajority to approve most major pieces of legislation.
The declarations, in a pair of posts on Twitter, appeared aimed at defending a spending package that Congress is likely to clear this week, but that fails to accomplish many of Trump’s stated goals, including any money to build a wall on the southern border that was his most talked-about campaign promise. Conservative activists have decried the agreement as one that does not address their priorities, but the White House has signaled that the president will accept it rather than set off a government shutdown.
The Twitter messages were also an indication of the degree to which bipartisan negotiations in Congress on the spending bill and others, including a health care overhaul that appeared on Tuesday to be stalled yet again, have bedeviled Trump at this early stage of his presidency, forcing him to bow to political realities to which he had insisted he was immune.
“The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there!” Trump said in one post, an apparent reference to the spending package.
The solution, he said, was either to elect more Republican senators in 2018, the next midterm elections, “or change the rules now to 51%.” That appeared to refer to scrapping the so-called filibuster that allows any senator to insist on a three-fifths vote, rather than a simple majority, to act on legislative matters.
“Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!” Trump said.
By publicly courting a future shutdown, an extraordinary move for a sitting president, Trump instead seemed to be confirming his reputation for rash statements that may yield little in the way of follow-through.
“President Trump may not like what he sees in this budget deal, but it’s dangerous and irresponsible to respond by calling for a shutdown,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a ranking member of the appropriations committee. “Hopefully, Republicans in Congress will do for the next budget what they did for this one: ignore President Trump’s demands, work with Democrats, and get it done.”