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President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are locked in a high-stakes showdown that could shutter the U.S. government for the first time in nearly seven years, as Democrats demand health care funding and Republicans refuse to bend.
Federal funding is set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday unless the Senate passes a stopgap bill already approved by the House. The measure would keep the government open for seven weeks, but Democrats say they will block it unless it extends Affordable Care Act subsidies for millions of Americans — a demand Trump has rejected outright.
“It’s now in the president’s hands,” Schumer said Monday after a tense White House meeting. “He can avoid the shutdown if he gets the Republican leaders to go along with what we want.”
Vice President JD Vance, who was also in the meeting, countered that Democrats were to blame. “I think we’re headed into a shutdown, because the Democrats won’t do the right thing,” he said.
White House meeting ends in stalemate
Trump met Monday with Schumer, Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. It was the president’s first face-to-face meeting with all four leaders since returning to office — and it ended with no deal.
“Their ideas are not very good ones,” Trump said before the meeting. Schumer later described the session as “frank but frustrating,” saying Trump “did not seem aware” of the consequences for millions who could lose affordable health coverage when subsidies expire Dec. 31.
Hours later, Trump inflamed tensions by posting a doctored video on Truth Social mocking Schumer and Jeffries with racist caricatures. “Bigotry will get you nowhere,” Jeffries fired back, vowing Democrats “will not back down.”
Health care and political stakes
At the heart of the impasse is whether to extend pandemic-era Affordable Care Act tax credits that helped millions afford insurance. Democrats call the extension essential; Republicans want to wait until after the stopgap is passed to negotiate terms.
“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” Jeffries said.
Thune accused Democrats of “hijacking” a basic funding bill. “We’re willing to sit down and work with them,” he said. “But this is a hostage situation of their own making.”
Shutdown countdown begins
As the deadline approaches, federal agencies are preparing for a partial shutdown. Contingency plans circulated Monday outline which services would continue and which employees would be furloughed.
Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, said the White House is “ready to manage the process appropriately” but blamed Democrats for “political theater.”
“This is all avoidable,” Vought said. “They need to accept the clean bill and stop holding the country hostage.”
Democrats face a test of resolve
For Democrats, the moment poses both political risk and opportunity. The party has long criticized Republicans for using shutdown threats as leverage. Now, their base is demanding that they hold the line against Trump’s agenda.
Schumer has faced internal pressure since March, when progressive groups blasted him for previously voting to keep the government open under Trump. “Things have changed,” he said Monday, citing GOP-led cuts to Medicaid and the Trump administration’s handling of health care.
Some Senate Democrats, including Gary Peters of Michigan, remain hopeful for a deal. “A lot can happen in this place in a short period of time,” Peters said.
But as the clock ticks toward Wednesday, Washington is bracing for a familiar outcome: a political staring contest in which neither side wants to blink first — and the federal workforce pays the price.
