President Donald Trump is now blaming Democratic lawmakers for a looming government shutdown ― even though he already said he would take full responsibility.
“The Democrats now own the shutdown!” the president tweeted on Friday.
Just over a week ago, Trump said he would be “proud” to shut down the government if he didn’t get more funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“If we don’t get what we want, one way or the other, whether it’s through you, through military, through anything you want to call, I will shut down the government,” Trump said during a televised Oval Office meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“I am proud to shut down the government for border security. … I will take the mantle,” Trump said. “I will be the one to shut it down.”
The government is set to partially shut down at the end of Friday unless Congress and the president act. But Trump has suggested he’ll keep his promise to force a shutdown. He announced on Thursday that he would not sign a budget extension the Senate passed to keep the government funded until February.
Rep. Susan Collins (R-Maine) expressed frustration at the president when reporters told her about Trump’s decision.
“Did he just say that?” she asked on Thursday. “Are you ruining my life?”
Schumer tweeted Friday pointing out Trump’s said he would be the one to shut down the government. The senator said the president was throwing a “temper tantrum.”
Trump has repeatedly gleefully called for a government shutdown when he hasn’t gotten his way.
But a shutdown over a border wall would hurt those working along the border, along with many other government workers. In the event of a government shutdown, Border Patrol agents would likely be among those working without pay.
That could be the case for an extended period, Trump said Friday.
“If the Dems vote no,” Trump tweeted, “there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time.”