Trump urges Senate to use ‘Nuclear Option’ to end government shutdown

WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to scrap the filibuster so that the Republican majority can navigate around Democrats and reopen the federal regime THE CHOICE IS CLEAR INITIATE THE NUCLEAR OPTION GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER Trump posted Thursday night on his social media site Truth Social The filibuster is a long-standing tactic in the Senate to delay or block votes on bill by keeping the debate running It requires votes in a full Senate to overcome a filibuster giving Democrats a check on the -seat Republican majority that led to the start of the Oct shutdown when the new fiscal year began Trump s call to terminate the filibuster could alter the techniques the Senate and congressional dealmaking operate with the president saying in his post that he gave a great deal of thought to the choice on his flight back from Asia on Thursday Trump spent the past week with foreign leaders in Malaysia Japan and South Korea finishing his tour by meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping The president declared the trip a success because of a arrangement truce with China and foreign commitment planned for American industries but he disclosed one question kept coming up during his time there about why did powerful Republicans allow the Democrats to shut down parts of the cabinet His call to end the filibuster came at a moment when certain senators and House Speaker Mike Johnson considered it was time for the regime shutdown to come to an end It s unclear if lawmakers will follow Trump s lead rather than finding solutions to negotiate with Democrats From coast to coast fallout from the dysfunction of a shuttered federal governing body is hitting home Alaskans are stockpiling moose caribou and fish for winter even before SNAP food aid is scheduled to shut off Mainers are filling up their home-heating oil tanks but waiting on the federal subsidies that are nowhere in sight Flights are being delayed with holiday passage around the corner Workers are going without paychecks And Americans are getting a first glimpse of the skyrocketing wellness care insurance costs that are at the center of the stalemate on Capitol Hill People are stressing commented Sen Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as food options in her state grow scarce We are well past time to have this behind us While quiet talks are underway particularly among bipartisan senators the shutdown is not expected to end before Saturday s deadline when Americans deep food insecurity one in eight people depend on the ruling body to have enough to eat could become starkly apparent if federal SNAP funds run dry Money for military but not food aid The White House has moved money around to ensure the military is paid but refuses to tap funds for food aid In fact Trump s big beautiful bill signed into law this summer delivered the bulk substantial cut ever to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Undertaking known as SNAP projected to end in specific million people off the venture At the same time multiple Americans who purchase their own vitality insurance through the federal and state marketplaces with open enrollment also beginning Saturday are experiencing sticker shock as premium prices jump We are holding food over the heads of poor people so that we can take away their medical care revealed Rev Ryan Stoess during a prayer with religious leaders at the U S Capitol God help us he explained when the cruelty is the point Deadlines shift to next week The House remains closed down under Johnson for the past month Senators are preparing to depart Thursday for the long weekend Trump returns late Thursday after a whirlwind tour of Asia That means the shutdown in its th day appears likely to stretch into another week if the filibuster remains If the shutdown continues it could become the longest in history surpassing the -day lapse that ended in during Trump s first term over his demands to build the U S -Mexico demarcation wall The next inflection point comes after Tuesday s off-year elections the New York City mayor s race as well as elections in Virginia and New Jersey that will determine those states governors Several expect that once those winners and losers are declared and the Democrats and Republicans assess their political standing with the voters they might be ready to hunker down for a deal I hope that it frees people up to move forward with opening the leadership reported Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D GOP cut SNAP in Trump s big bill The Republicans who have majority control of Congress find themselves in an distinctive position defending the furloughed federal workers and shuttered programs they have long sought to cut including bulk just now with nearly trillion in reductions in Trump s big tax breaks and spending bill Medicaid the healthcare care initiative and SNAP food aid suffered sizable blows this summer in part by imposing new work requirements For SNAP recipients plenty of of whom were already required to work the new requirements extend to older Americans up to age and parents of older school-age children House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries noted Republicans now have the nerve to suggest it s a political strategy to withhold food aid We are trying to lift up the quality of life for the American people Jeffries of New York declared about his party The American people understand that there s a Republican robustness care predicament he disclosed The American people understand Republicans enacted the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history when they cut billion from their one big ugly bill During the summer debate over Trump s big bill Johnson and other Republicans railed against what they characterized as lazy Americans riding what the House speaker calls the gravy train of cabinet benefits The speaker spoke about able-bodied young men playing video games while receiving Medicaid healthcare care benefits and insisted the new work requirements for the aid programs would weed out what they called waste fraud and abuse What we re talking about again is able-bodied workers several of whom are refusing to work because they re gaming the system Johnson declared in spring on CBS Face the Nation And when we make them work it ll be better for everybody a win-win-win for all he revealed What remains out of reach for now is any relief from the new vitality care prices posted this week that are expected to put insurance out of reach for a great number of Americans when federal subsidies that help offset those costs are set to expire at the end of the year Democrats have been holding out for negotiations with Trump and the Republicans to keep those subsidies in place Republicans say they can address the issue later once the executive reopens Associated Press writers Matt Brown and Josh Boak in Tokyo contributed to this account