Government shutdown live updates as Democrats propose 1-year extension of health care subsidies

President Trump reiterated his call for Senate Republicans to do away with the filibuster to end the shutdown Friday, telling reporters during a bilateral meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that “the way to do it for the Republicans is to terminate the filibuster.”

Senate GOP leaders have pushed back on the president’s request, saying that the votes aren’t there  to do away with the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation.

“That’s too bad, they’re making a big mistake,” Mr. Trump said of GOP opposition to nixing the rule. “No, but they’re coming my way.”

The president said “only a foolish person would be against that,” adding that “it doesn’t make any sense that a Republican would not want to do that.”

“The Democrats will do this,” he said. “So if the Democrats are going to do it, I’m saying Republicans should do it before they get a chance. It’s very simple. And if we do it, we will never lose the midterms, and we will never lose the general election, because we will have produced so many different things for our people, for the people, for the country, that it would be impossible to lose an election.”

Asked how long the shutdown will last, Mr. Trump said, “I don’t know.”


“It’s up to the Democrats,” he said. “The Republicans have voted 14 times to open up the country, the Democrats have voted 14 times to hurt the country, really. They should approve it, but they might not. That’s why I like the fact that we terminate the filibuster. If we terminate the filibuster, the country will be open within 10 minutes after that termination.”

On the possibility of a deal with Democrats, Mr. Trump said, “I don’t know, we’ll see what they have.”