President Trump on Friday offered a dour prediction about the looming government shutdown, saying Americans should be prepared for it to happen and they should blame Democrats.
Mr. Trump said if the shutdown does happen, it’ll be Democratic priorities that won’t be funded.
“We’ll continue to talk to the Democrats but I think you could very well end up with a closed county for a period of time,” Mr. Trump said Friday in the Oval Office. “And we’ll take care of the military, we’ll take care of Social Security, we’ll take care of the things that we have to take care of.”
“A lot of the things that Democrats fight for which in many cases aren’t very good, things will not be able to be paid, so we’ll watch and see how they do with that to handle their constituents,” Mr. Trump continued.
The president’s remarks came hours after the Senate rejected competing measures to fund federal agencies for a few weeks, when the budget year begins on Oct. 1. By failing to reach an agreement, it increases the prospects for a partial government shutdown on that date.
The House approved a short-term GOP plan earlier in the day along party lines.
Leaders of both parties blame the other side for the standoff. Democrats say the Republicans are not willing to address some of their key priorities on health care.
Republicans say Democrats were making demands that would increase spending, and none of their priorities were necessary to keep the government running while negotiations continue on a short-term funding package.
Mr. Trump accused Democrats of risking a government shutdown in order to thwart his agenda.
“We’re doing so well as a country. We’re doing probably better than ever before. If you look at the stock market and other indicators, we have tremendous investment coming in, records investment coming everything is going well, but the Democrats are unhappy about that, because they don’t want it to go well,” Mr. Trump said. “I think they actually dislike our country greatly.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.