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President Donald Trump plans to meet with congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle on Monday, as a possible government shutdown looms, a White House official confirmed to Fox News.
The meeting comes after the president canceled one last week with Democrats, claiming they had “unserious and ridiculous demands.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., were set to meet with Trump on Thursday to discuss a path forward to avert a partial government shutdown before the Sept. 30 deadline.
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Schumer and Jeffries will now meet with Trump, along with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
Schumer and Jeffries put out a joint statement on Saturday on the rescheduled meeting.
“President Trump has once again agreed to a meeting in the Oval Office,” the statement said. “As we have repeatedly said, Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people. We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis. Time is running out.”
The Senate is expected to return on Sept. 29 following the Jewish new year, and the House is expected to be out until the deadline to keep the government funded passes.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social last week, Trump blasted Schumer and Jeffries for pushing “radical Left policies that nobody voted for.”
“I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump added at the time.
The now-canceled meeting with Trump came on the heels of a letter from Schumer and Jeffries sent over that weekend where the top congressional Democrats laid the possibility of a shutdown on his and Republicans’ feet.
They argued that the Trump-backed short-term extension was “dirty,” which would mean it had partisan policy riders or spending attached to it, and panned it for continuing “the Republican assault on healthcare,” ignoring expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies, and possibly leading to the closure of hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country.
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“With the September 30th deadline fast approaching, Republicans will bear responsibility for another painful government shutdown because of the refusal of GOP congressional leadership to even talk with Democrats,” they wrote at the time.
But Trump argued that their bill would allow for the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts in his “Big, Beautiful Bill” to be repealed, and also blasted the Democratic continuing resolution (CR) for ending his bill’s $50 billion rural hospital fund.
“We must keep the Government open, and legislate like true Patriots rather than hold American Citizens hostage, knowing that they want our now thriving Country closed,” he said.
“I’ll be happy to meet with them if they agree to the Principles in this Letter,” Trump continued. “They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand. To the Leaders of the Democrat Party, the ball is in your court. I look forward to meeting with you when you become realistic about the things that our Country stands for. DO THE RIGHT THING!”
Without any action, a shutdown would start at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
Johnson said last week that he had encouraged Trump to cancel the meeting last Thursday.
“He and I talked about it at length yesterday and the day before. I said, look, when they get their job done, once they do the basic governing work of keeping the government open, as president, then you can have a meeting with him,” Johnson said on the “Mike & McCarty Show.” “Of course, it might be productive at that point, but right now, this is just a waste of his time.”
Fox News’ Alex Miller and Elizabeth Elkind and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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