President Donald Trump has no plans to meet with congressional Democrats as a federal government shutdown looms, according to a new report.

The Republican strategy is to push Democrats into a corner to vote for what Republicans want — in this case a seven-week funding extension that would keep the federal government running — or face a shutdown in which the Trump administration has already signaled it will further reduce the federal workforce and federal programs.

“We’re going to extract maximum pain,” a senior White House official who was not named said, according to Politico.

Democrats “will pay a huge price for this,” the official said.

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The White House is gearing up for major layoffs if the government shuts down, using the funding gap to cut federal jobs. A memo directs agencies to fire employees from unfunded programs misaligned with Trump’s priorities,… pic.twitter.com/tJUem6GtE0

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“Historically, it’s the aggressor that always loses,” the official added. “And quite simply, their constituencies and their priorities are all going to get chewed up, and ours, not so much.”

Democrats have said they want a laundry list of spending included or they will not vote to keep the government running. That strategy led Trump to respond on Truth Social.

“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump wrote.

Trump said Democrats want “over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens (A monumental cost!), force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody.”

With Trump having told off Democrats, “we’re bracing for impact,” the White House official told Politico.

The official said Democrats cannot hold out for long, and that Trump’s allies in Congress will hang tough with the president.

Some Democratic movement may already be taking place, according to The Hill.

The outlet reported that informally there are “a handful of Democratic senators who want to avoid a government shutdown.”

The equation for these Democrats is whether the proposed health care spending increase is worth triggering a shutdown.

“There is a small handful of intelligent Democrats who don’t want to see the government shut down [and] are working behind the scenes,” a Senate Republican source said.

The Senate needs seven Democratic votes to join with the 53 Republicans to pass a stopgap spending bill.

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is reported to be among the Democrats trying to avert shutdown. She has announced she will not run for re-election in 2026.

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