LOS ANGELES (OC0.–President Donald Trump showed how out-of-step with Senate Republicans, urging them in the strongest possible terms to end the filibuster or the supermajority 60 vote majority to pass any legislation. Republicans know if Democrats get power after the 2026 Midterm election, they don’t want to face Democrats in power without the filibuster. Trump’s shortsighted is related to the fact that he’s a one-term president, so he doesn’t have to worry about what comes next. Last week’s off-year election showed the Republicans under Trump’s leadership are in trouble, no longer representing the people. Trump went overboard with tariffs adding to the ongoing inflation regardless of whether energy prices have come down since Trump took office. Trump thinks that Democrats are the ones that are caving in when it’s obvious they hold the cards in the current government shutdown.
Trump’s lost his political instincts since winning office, more concerned about his image than what happens on the streets with ordinary people. If he had any empathy for the people, he wouldn’t be fighting to deny the public nutritional assistance and government subsidized health care. “The Democrats are cracking like dogs on the Shutdown because they are deathly afraid that I am making progress with the Republicans on TERMINATING THE FULIBUSTER,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Only a LOSER would not agree with doing this,” insulting Republicans that know it’s a bad idea to end the filibuster. Trump is the one who’s recognizing he has less clout on Capitol Hill because he know he’s not running for president again in 2028. Trump thinks that he’s still running in the 2024 election, when the public has moved on to what’s happening today.
No one in the public wants to have their flights delayed or cancelled because Trump helped create the government shutdown, failing to pay essential government workers like air-traffic controllers and Transportation Security. “Whether we make a Deal of not, THE REPUBLICANS MUST BLOW THE FILIBUSTER AND APPROVE HUNDREDS O LONG SOUGH, BUT NEVER GOTTEN, POLICY WINS LIKE: AS JUST A SMAL EXAMPLE, VOTE ID (IDENFIFICATION),” Trump said. “Only a LOSER would not agree to this.” Trum insults every Republican senator and House members knowing the have good reason to maintain the filibuster when the day comes when Democrats take power again. Trump doesn’t worry about the future because he won’t be around in three years. Future generations of Democrats and Republicans need the filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he was keeping senators over the weekend where he promised to get some kind of legislation passed to reopen the government. Thune and Republican senators rejected a Democrat plan to leave current spending for health care and SNAP in place for one year before the Senate can work on compromise legislation. Thune said it was rejected only because Republicans senators are still working on the bills necessary to refund essential government programs including Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies, something important enough to Democrats to win their votes ona new continuing budge resolution. Thune promised before the weekend ends the government shutdown will be over saving the holiday travel season.
Problems between Democrats and Republicans started when OMB Budget Director Russell Vought cut $1.5 trillion in Medicaid funding in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. He knew when the current budget ran out of cash, Democrats would rebel, potentially shutting down the government until the GOP restored Medicaid and Obamacare funding. Trump is wrong that Democrats are “cracking like dogs” under fear of the filibuster ending. Thune dismissed Trump’s demand to end the filibuster, insisting both sides would work on language that would satisfy both sides of the aisle. Thune thinks he can get three bills out of the Senate that maintain current levels of health care and SNAP funding, satisfying enough Democrats to get the 60 votes needed to pass the bills. Nearly 30 days into a government shutdown, both sides should be embarrassed for their incompetence.
House and Senate under Article 1 authority have it in their power to alloace the necessary resources to keep the government properly funded. Asking Trump at this point what to do is exactly the wrong approach because he has trouble understanding differences between Article 1 and Article 2 authority. Trump can urge Congress to fund his priorities but ultimately Congress must reconcile itself with its opposition, whether that runs afoul with the White House. “I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of billions of Dollar currently being sen to money sucking Insurance Companies in order ot sthe bad Health care provided by Obamacare, BE SEN DIRECTO TO THE PEOPLE so THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTH CARE, and we have money left over,” Trump said on Truth Social. With suggestions like that, no wonder Trump is irrelevant.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
