December 29, 2018

Trump Complains Democrats Are Causing the Shutdown. Americans Don’t See It That Way.

The president is tweeting his objections, but not actually talking with Democrats to strike a deal.

Martin H. Simon/CNP/ZUMA

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More Americans fault President Donald Trump for the federal government shutdown than Democrats in Congress, according to a poll by Reuters/Ipsos released this week. But that isn’t stopping the president from going on a Twitter rant, with Trump grumbling on Saturday morning that Democrats “are spending so much time on Presidential Harassment” and that they are prolonging the shutdown.

The poll, conducted December 21 through 25, found that 47 percent of Americans hold Trump responsible, compared to 33 percent who blame congressional Democrats and 7 percent who blame congressional Republicans.

Obviously, that is not how Trump sees it as he’s holed up in Washington, DC this week. On Saturday morning, he complained that the Mueller investigation is a “Witch Hunt Hoax” before tweeting that he is “waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security” in order to reopen the government.

The shutdown is only going to affect more agencies and government services as it stretches into its second week, with no apparent resolution in sight when Democrats take control of the House on January 3. More than 800,000 federal workers are affected, and essential staff that have not been furloughed are forced to work without pay.

Trump has insisted that he will only sign a spending bill that includes funding for a border wall, an issue that is not only a nonstarter for Democrats, but for some Republicans as well.

According to Politico, Trump isn’t trying especially hard to strike a compromise with Democrats. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not heard from Trump in weeks.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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