Trump clings to filibuster demand as shutdown drags on

President Donald Trump careened into the weekend with no sign of abandoning his futile “kill the filibuster” strategy to end the shutdown, despite a stinging week of political rebukes.

Trump on Friday repeated his calls for Senate Republicans to terminate the 60-vote Senate rule — a “nuclear” off-ramp that even he has admitted has little chance of becoming reality. Those demands, echoed by administration officials, including Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, came after deep Republican losses during Tuesday’s off-year elections, a Supreme Court hearing that called Trump’s tariff power into doubt and new signs of cracking in public support for his party’s handling of the shutdown.

“I am totally in favor of terminating the filibuster, and we would be back to work within 10 minutes after that vote took place,” Trump told reporters Friday. “It doesn’t make any sense that a Republican would not want to do that.”

The president’s insistence to pivot away from the unproductive filibuster strategy — and Senate Republicans exhibiting a rare refusal to go along with his agenda — provides little clarity on how the shutdown, now in its 39th day, may end. Shortly after Trump demanded senators remain in Washington to reach a deal, Majority Leader John Thune said he would bring the chamber back on Saturday. But what, if anything, senators vote on this weekend is unknown.

Trump’s posture reflects his belief that he’s in a filibuster arms race with Democrats, who he fears would immediately repeal the rule if they retake the chamber and use it to pass sweeping legislation. The push mirrors the failed effort he deployed during his first term to scrap the filibuster, as he similarly warned that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats would do it if Republicans didn’t. Democrats did not.

“The president is showing the American people that he’s looking at this from every angle to end the shutdown, and he’s willing to call out his own party to do something,” said a former Trump official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“There’s a political tool piece of this,” the former official added.

Democrats’ victories by higher-than-expected margins in Tuesday’s elections — when an ideologically diverse set of candidates won on a common message about cost-of-living — alarmed the White House and buoyed the faction of the Democratic Party urging senators to lock in and fight for health care subsidy concessions. Trump this week said the shutdown contributed to Republican losses, as he and his allies only intensified their pleas to terminate the filibuster in order to advance his agenda ahead of next year’s midterms.

“If Republicans in the Senate capitulate, it’ll be a mess. I do. I think it’ll be bad for the party,” said Alex Bruesewitz, an outside Trump adviser. “And I hope Republicans in the Senate learn how to fight for their voters. Otherwise, I don’t think that they’re going to continue to get elected. I really don’t, which is unfortunate, but I think the president and his judgment should be trusted by now.”

But the president’s allies also concede that the White House knows the votes aren’t there, and that Trump’s filibuster talk is part of a broader messaging push to gain shutdown leverage.

“I think they’re gonna cut a deal, I really do,” said one longtime White House ally. The person, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, added that Trump was using the threat of filibuster repeal “to scare the Democrats into cutting a deal.”

“He wants to get things done,” the person added. “He’s frustrated by what’s going on in Congress.”

But Democrats’ efforts on Friday also did little to advance those negotiations. Republicans balked at Schumer’s counterproposal: attaching a one-year extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies to a spending stopgap.

A White House official, granted anonymity to speak about internal thinking, described Schumer’s proposal as a “massive climbdown” from Democrats’ initial position and “shows they’re under massive internal pressure.”

“They should open the government, and we’ll meet with them on the tax credit and work with them on it,” the official said, reiterating that the White House’s position has not changed.

Republican leaders also criticized Schumer’s latest offer, with Thune calling it a “nonstarter” and saying the “Obamacare extension is the negotiation.”

The president, for his part, left Washington for Mar-a-Lago on Friday, despite his call for the Senate to remain in session. But Trump didn’t offer any clarity on what sort of deal, if anything, he might support to reopen federal agencies.

“If they can’t reach a Deal,” the president said in a Truth Social post, “the Republicans should terminate the Filibuster, IMMEDIATELY, and take care of our Great American Workers!”