Trump Demands Senators Stay In Town to Reach a Deal or Kill ‘Filibuster, IMMEDIATELY’

Alex Brandon/AP

President Donald Trump demanded that senators “not leave town” until the country’s longest-ever shutdown is resolved and threatened to “terminate” the filibuster “IMMEDIATELY” if both sides cannot reach a deal.

Taking to Truth Social late Friday, the president wrote:

The repeated call to end the filibuster, the 60-vote threshold that has defined modern Senate dealmaking for decades, has become instrumental to Trump’s pressure campaign as the shutdown drags toward its fourth week.

Minutes before Trump’s post, Senate Majority Leader John Thune rejected outright a Democratic proposal to reopen the government and simultaneously extend Affordable Care Act premium credits, a deal Democrats pitched as allowing talks on longer-term healthcare questions to proceed once agencies were back online.

Thune indicated the chamber is likely to be in session through the weekend. But he has not scheduled a 15th vote on the House-passed stopgap bill, the vote many on Capitol Hill see as the necessary trigger to unlock a Republican offer.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!