WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that Democrats would get the blame if the government shuts down — 11 days after telling Democratic leaders that he would proudly accept the blame.
“The Democrats now own the shutdown!” Trump tweeted Friday morning.
The statement is an about-face from his televised Oval Office meeting with Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi in which the president declared he’d be “proud” to shut down the government over border wall funding and promised not to blame Democrats for the Christmastime chaos.
“I’m not going to blame you for it,” Trump said at the time. “I will take the mantle of shutting down, and I’m going to shut it down for border security.”
A partial government shutdown will start Saturday if the House and Senate can’t come to terms on a funding deal.
The Senate passed a budget extension through Feb. 8 — but Trump rejected it because there was no money for his border wall.
Trump is expected to meet with Senate Republicans on Friday at the White House, after urging GOP leader Mitch McConnell to resort to the “nuclear option” and pass more than $5 billion for his border wall with a simple 51-vote majority instead of the 60 votes now required.