A Checked-Out Trump Posts Childish Memes As The US Government Shutdown Continues

US President Donald Trump WASHINGTON — As federal workers and members of Congress in both parties worry about the ongoing government shutdown, President Donald Trump is phoning it in — literally — mostly with juvenile Internet memes.Monday, after meeting with the four top legislative leaders, Trump posted on his social media platform an AI-enhanced video of House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York wearing a sombrero and a giant black mustache.On Wednesday, hours after the shutdown began, he reposted a photo of himself signing a document with the caption: “CRY ALL YOU WANT; HE’S DOING EXACTLY WHAT I HIRED HIM FOR.”Thursday night, he posted a video mocking the federal workforce in his own executive branch who are fearful of losing their jobs with a cover of the Blue Oyster Cult classic “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” featuring his own budget director and layoff enthusiast Russ Vought wearing a hooded cloak and carrying a scythe.Minutes later, he posted videos making fun of Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, individually, with the Jeffries one depicting Trump tossing a “Trump 2028” cap onto Jeffries’ head and then laughing uproariously, which manages to mock both Jeffries and the U.S. Constitution at the same time.President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media as he departs the White House on Sept. 26 in Washington, D.C.At no point since the Monday meeting — which was requested by Jeffries and Schumer, not initiated by Trump — has Trump tried to work out differences between Democrats and Republicans to end the impasse.“Everything that President Trump has done subsequent to Monday has been unhinged and unserious,” Jeffries told NBC News on Friday. “In fact, Donald Trump is in the presidential witness protection program. No one can find him when it comes to the government shutdown issue because he knows he’s responsible for having caused it.”One Republican consultant in Trump’s orbit had a simple theory about his lack of interest: “Not impacting him.”Even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed and essential government programs are at risk of running out of money, Trump himself appears to have played no significant role in efforts to end the shutdown — he hasn’t appeared in public since Tuesday — perhaps reflecting how little the shutdown affects his own top priorities.Indeed, Trump has declared that work on his massive home improvement project to build a ballroom on the South Lawn will not be slowed by the shutdown. His use of masked federal agents — which a judge described as “secret police” — to raid Chicago continues unabated, as do his missile strikes against boaters he claims are running drugs in the Caribbean.And as press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday, his efforts to push more federal agents and troops into yet more American cities also continue despite the closing of “nonessential” government functions.“President Trump will end the radical left’s reign of terror in Portland once and for all. The president has directed [Defence] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth to provide all necessary troops to protect war-ravaged Portland and any ICE facilities under siege from attack by antifa and other left-wing domestic terrorists,” Leavitt said.Rick Wilson, a Republican consultant who has opposed Trump since his first run for president, said Trump’s attitude on the matter is unsurprising. “First, Trump notoriously has the attention span of a small flying insect. Next, he’s always believed that transgression wins for him,” he said.Whatever is behind it, Trump’s lack of engagement is in marked contrast to efforts by previous presidents to end them or avert them in the first place.Former President Barack Obama worked with both Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader at the time, and John Boehner, the Republican House speaker, to end the shutdown in 2013. And Former President Joe Biden consulted with McConnell and Republican House speakers Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson to prevent them from happening.“We resisted negotiating about the debt limit, but were always up for negotiating about budget,” said former Biden White House spokesman Andrew Bates. “And we had zero shutdowns.”The federal government ran out of spending authority at midnight on Tuesday when most Senate Democrats refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that does not include an extension of enhanced tax credits for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act that will expire at the end of the year. Democrats say that premium notices must go out soon, and therefore action to renew the credits has to take place now.Republicans have said they are open to discussing a renewal but not in the context of a government shutdown.Trump and his allies, meanwhile, have instead pushed the lie that Democrats shut down the government to provide health care to migrants in this country illegally. “The Democrats continue to recklessly hold the American people hostage over their demands to give illegal aliens free health care,” Leavitt said at the very start of her press briefing Friday.The only “health care” available to illegal immigrants from federal dollars, however, is emergency room treatment for grave injuries and illnesses. Hospitals are required to treat anyone in those cases, regardless of ability to pay or immigration status, because of legislation signed into law in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, who until recently was viewed as the modern icon of conservatism by most Republicans.“Just like how he doesn’t care if families go bankrupt because he’s causing health care prices to double, Donald Trump doesn’t give a damn about reopening the government. He’s reveling in the chaos of his shutdown,” said Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin. “Why is it that a gaudy ballroom meant to entertain his elite buddies and foreign donors is a priority, yet health care isn’t?”Wilson said Trump’s position is not likely to change unless and until he sees an ongoing shutdown as damaging to him personally. “I don’t think he understands how to process the consequences of this,” Wilson said. “The polling is definitely breaking against him on it, and I suspect his uninterest will transition to find a way to blame Mike Johnson, and then quietly end the conflict.” HuffPost’s Arthur Delaney contributed to this report.Related...Trump Gives Ominous Warning As He Says Hamas Must 'Move Quickly' To Free HostagesScreen Icon Richard Gere Tears Into 'Crazy' Trump: 'He's A Dark, Dark Presence''We're So Screwed': Critics React To Trump Posting '(Don't Fear) The Reaper' Song Parody

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