President Trump has chalked up another win.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made noises earlier this week about the possibility of holding up a continuing resolution that would fund the government all the way until September.
It was unclear why he was doing that. Strategically, he had no ground on which to stand because, after all, if the Democratic minority in the United States Senate decided to filibuster the continuing resolution, there would be a government shutdown. Then, the Republicans would correctly name the Democrats as having actually created the government shutdown, at which point Schumer and the Democrats would be blamed for everything.
It was a gigantic unforced error by Schumer. Then, on Thursday, he reversed. Democrats, of course, are very upset at Schumer because they believe that it is their duty to obstruct literally everything the Republicans do.
To be fair to Schumer, this was a no-win situation.
On the one hand, if the continuing resolution goes forward, then President Trump can continue to unleash the executive branch, using DOGE to cut, slash, and burn. He has the capacity to do that because the continuing resolution says the government is going to continue to run at the same funding levels as it has previously. It did not include specific designations where funding ought to go within each department, allowing for enormous discretion inside the executive branch for President Trump to continue to allow DOGE to do its work, which Democrats hate.
On the other hand, if they’d gone into a government shutdown, then President Trump would have had the capacity to determine who is and is not an essential worker because he’s the president. And that would mean more firings.
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So Schumer’s radical Left-wing base was very upset with him for not standing up to President Trump by filibustering the continuing resolution.
The victory was a really amazing play by Speaker Mike Johnson, who was somehow able to cobble together the entire Republican majority. There’s been a lot of talk about Speaker Johnson and the unworkable Republican majority because it’s so small. In some ways, he’s actually benefited by that, because any single vote could be the vote that sinks a Trump agenda item. And no one wants to be the House vote saying no and thereby sinking a Trump agenda item — except for Thomas Massie.
The Democrats have to show performatively that they oppose Trump even if they can’t actually obstruct his agenda in any sort of effective ways. For instance, every single Democrat has begun cursing at a higher level. That’s performative.
In an article published earlier today, Punchbowl News wrote:
What a mess this has become.
A government-funding fight that began with Democrats demanding restrictions on Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE has ended with Democrats folding, and now sniping bitterly at each other.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team distanced themselves from Schumer’s decision — but didn’t name him — in a statement Thursday night. Other House Democrats took direct aim at Schumer, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Even Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and Schumer ally, thinks it’s a big mistake.
Let’s be blunt here: Democrats picked a fight they couldn’t win and caved without getting anything in return. … Schumer had been making those same arguments against a shutdown for days in private. Yet he let this drag out, giving Democrats a false sense of hope that the caucus was actually going to fight.
And Trump wins again.
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