‘They will pay a huge price for this’: Shutdown-ready Trump expects Democrats to blink
Many Democrats believe the White House is bluffing and insist Republicans will bear responsibility for a shutdown in the public eye because the GOP controls the government.
The Trump administration is expecting a government shutdown come Wednesday and there are no current plans to negotiate with Democratic leadership, according to a senior White House official.
“We’re going to extract maximum pain,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss political strategy, adding that Democrats “will pay a huge price for this.”
The comments underscore the White House’s belief that Democrats will be blamed for a shutdown and its ripple effects, which could include mass layoffs across the federal government.
52 replies
The Democrats messaging, as always, has been abysmal on this. They should have been hitting the airwaves since the last vote preparing public for this to happen and - rightly - putting the responsibility on the GOP who owns both sides of congress and the presidency.
You know who owns the airwaves right
Of course, and yet SOME effort from the Dems would not go unnoticed. Politics today is so overwhelmingly based on vibes today and to not try to influence that is political malpractice.
Not that the Democrats do good things often enough. But even when they do. Almost no one notices. It would absolutely go unnoticed.
bruh, the GOP is 100% complicit in burning it all down, they win either way.
I say this as a government employee: shut it down. I don't want to be looking for a new job in Trump's economy, but we're long past the point where we can fight this authoritarianism without risking anything.
Me too, as hard as a government shut down will be on my family it's necessary to preserve liberties.
Oh no, Trump might do what he was going to do anyway.
Don't we go though this every time? I could swear "we" settled on "the public blames the party that forced the shutdown" not the party in power.
Seems more like Americans always blame the democrats. It's like the country just expects the Republicans to be reprehensible pieces of morally bankrupt shit.
It's like a dysfunctional family. People don't blame Dad for getting drunk, they blame Aunt Helen for pointing it out and getting him mad.
Pretty much spot on. The problem is that the only way to fight the republicans is with an effective Democratic party. Theres zero hope we could ever change the republican party, but theres some small hope of changing the democrats. Thus people focus on the democrats first.
Actually, the public blames whoever they want, per usual. People like when their party holds out for things they like, and people dislike when the other party holds out for things the don't like. People believe what they want, when they want, please see someone asking why Obama wasn't helping more during 9/11 (technically unrelated but my favorite example of people just willing to hate on a dem while just being so verifiably wrong): https://youtube.com/shorts/4v5Yoo9xLyw
Same as people not liking congress, but often liking THEIR congressperson. People don't care about the facts. Though I believe there's no real winning move for Dems at the moment. They have completely failed as a party and as an opposition party and if this is where they push back it will result in bad outcomes for their constituents, but they won't be able to justify those bad outcomes with any actual results.
Every day they delay is one more chance for Trump to stroke out and die before he can go full genocidal dictator. Considering his age and those health rumors I'd say that's a win.
If trump dies, nothing changes. Do you honestly think that drooling, sniveling shitbag is running anything other than his mouth ?
It doesn't matter what he does, it matters what people believe he does. To his base Trump is MAGA. Without him I don't think they have anywhere near the cohesive movement that they do currently.
Shut it down! It's not functioning correctly. Let's spin up a new one while the old one reboots.
I'd be happy loading a backup copy from around 2012.
LOADING…
probly should load the one before 9-11 , things were already falling apart in 2012
You want load beforehand so we have to have a second 9/11? You monster
9/11 two, the elevening
nah, let’s do 1999, the matrix was peak humanity.
If we stopped W from stealing the election, 9/11 would never have happened.
You jest, but this is likely exactly what he's doing. Just not in that way.
Dear lord please Kirk this duck
Trump wants to shut down the government for good and install a dictatorship
Why do you think all the generals and admirals have been called to DC next week?
Yup
Let's be real. They likely will blink. The dems almost as a rule always have just enough turncoats on hand to ensure the Rs get everything they want and they themselves can't ever get anything done.
I expect nothing from them. But im open to being surprised.
There is only one team. That's why it's always just enough
If Chuck Schumer blinks, he loses the right to ever say "TACO Trump" again.
If Democrats are smart they would be out there 24/7 telling the public that Trump has refused to work with the Democrats and remind them that Republicans have the votes to go out alone per Trump's orders.
And then let Republicans Mike pence themselves in a lose lose scenario and then go back on the air 24/7 doing the Scrubs I told you so dance.
Because right now, I literally have conservatives at work saying to everyone, including government people, about the pending Democrat shutdown.
You know those same people would be saying the same thing even if Democrats were shouting it from the rooftops that this is Trump's and the Republicans' fault. Odds are good that they wouldn't even see any information on it in their conservative bubbles.
I know but you know why they're saying this right? Because everyone in their bubble is out there saying this from the top, especailly from the top all the way down the the bottom of the barrel 24/Fucking 7/365.
Something that Democrats absolutely sucks balls at.
Mass layoffs across the federal government, you say? Was that supposed to be good or bad?
The cognitive dissonance is almost unbearable. I thought conservatives hated the government? Shouldn't they be celebrating a shutdown? They are literally getting what they want.
But muh free money pipe :(((
Trump is using more layoffs during the shutdown as a threat to get rid of employees that don’t “align with his political agenda“.
But this isn’t much of a threat to the Democrats, especially because they all know he’s gonna do some bullshit like that anyway, and appeasing him now will just embolden him.
Yeah, he's already played the mass RIF hand. He's going to try to make it happen with/without a shutdown.
Also, anyone slightly aware of things knows a shutdown doesn't cause mass layoffs, that's all Republicans.
It's like they haven't been doing that with doge this whole time
Shutdown will just be used as an excuse to permanently eliminate programs.
That's what Schumer said last time. Spoiler: he did the layoffs anyway.
While the Democrats surely will be blamed (they have proven time and again that they are too incompetent to spin this correctly), falling flat will have worse consequences.
duh its 100% trump and maga including the majority in the legislature. Big beautiful butfuck bill.
He wants a shutdown.
It could cause “mass layoffs across the federal government.”
Oh yeah he wants this bad. It’s a fast track to getting what he wants. Doge not necessary.
he thinks they will blink because Shumer told him if they don’t talk about it before hand he would start crying.
Do you know how many salaries we could cut if I just get rid of the legislative branch? -Trump very soon lol
ok? not sure what you are getting at.
my point being that the democrats are either spineless, or complicit. that chuck recently went on tv. The reporter, who was only desperately trying to get him to show spine and use leverage against republicans, ultimately failed in the most pathetic whimpering since shumers “nasty” letter pointing at trumps low numbers when democrats were even lower.
what a fucking joke.
I dont think anyone will beleive that they are worthy of blame. Dems can barely accomplish anything even when they are in power. Painting them as a powerful boogieman enemy now is not going to work.
Welcome to fascism? This is how the game is played: simultaneously powerless and powerful, cowardly and overwhelming.