President Donald Trump again called on Democrats to fund the government on Monday, Day 26 of the government shutdown, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and his caucus continue to oppose a clean continuing resolution (CR).
Trump called out Democrats on Air Force One on Monday while en route from Malaysia to Japan on the second leg of his Asia trip, when asked if there is a way to pay air traffic controllers.
“Yeah, there is, but the Democrats should just do a simple extension. The Democrats are holding it up,” Trump said.
“They want $1.5 trillion for people that came out of prisons, or illegal aliens that come into our country. We don’t want to do that because that will really hurt the health care that we have in our country, and frankly, we’d like to see better health care, period,” Trump said.
Notably, Democrats have sought to reverse a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill that curtailed taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits for illegal aliens and noncitizens. Nearly all Senate Republicans and several Democrats have voted for the House-passed CR that would continue to fund the government at 2024 levels approved by then-President Joe Biden.
But sixty votes are needed to break cloture and unlock a simple floor vote on the bill, meaning a handful of Democrats must join colleagues like Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Angus King (I-VT), as well as the 52 Republicans who have voted for the CR repeatedly, to reach the 60-vote threshold.
“The Democrats can solve that problem with air traffic control. All they have to do is say, the country’s open. We only need five votes. The Republicans are with us. We only need five votes. So let’s see what happens,” Trump said.
“I would imagine that gets taken care of, not only the controllers, but other people too,” he added.
At another point during the press gaggle, Trump said, “We just want people to get paid.”
“Our country is doing so well economically; it’s doing so incredibly well,” he said. “The Democrats should let it open. I guess they don’t do that because it’s doing so well. It’s too bad. But… on the macro scale, it’s not having that kind of an effect. We just want people to get paid.”
Trump also lauded the anonymous donor, reportedly identified as Timothy Mellon, who donated $130 million to the federal government to pay military personnel.
“And how about the man that put up $130 million to make sure our military got paid,” Trump said, telling reporters he would not share the man’s identity. “But this is a person that called me that said, ‘Sir, I’d like to make a contribution of any difference needed for the United States military.’”
“I said, ‘I don’t know, that could be a big number.’ And we worked it out,” Trump added. “It was about $130 million, and he wrote a check for $130 million because he’s an unbelievable patriot, and that’s what it’s all about.”
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