WASHINGTON \u2014 As the government shutdown crosses the three-week mark, Democrats are increasingly calling on President Donald Trump to get more involved in finding a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And some Republicans acknowledge that Trump has been disengaged and say it wouldn\u2019t hurt if he got more involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Hakeem and I reached out to the president today and urged him to sit down and negotiate with us to resolve the health care crisis, address it and end the Trump shutdown,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday, referring to his House counterpart, Hakeem Jeffries of New York. \u201cWe urged him to meet with us, and we said we\u2019ll set up an appointment with him any time, any place before he leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as Republican senators ate cheeseburgers at a private lunch meeting with Trump on Tuesday, there was little discussion of the shutdown, several of them said afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe mentioned it briefly, but my sense is that nothing\u2019s changed,\u201d said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. \u201cWe\u2019ll talk about all the issues the Democrats want to talk about once the government reopens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That has been the GOP strategy all along \u2014 to hold firm on its short-term funding bill and expect Democrats to back off their demands to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies. It hasn\u2019t worked, with the Senate voting 11 times to reject the bill that passed the Republican-led House version and seeing no votes changing by even one senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has met only once with Schumer and Jeffries, on Sept. 29 \u2014 two days before the shutdown began \u2014 and it didn\u2019t go well. He reacted hours later by taunting the two Democrats with an artificial intelligence-generated post that put words in Schumer\u2019s mouth and a sombrero on Jeffries\u2019 head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Trump\u2019s involvement is \u201cessential\u201d to ending the shutdown because GOP leaders on Capitol Hill won\u2019t cut a deal without his blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRepublicans here are not going to make a move without Trump saying that he\u2019s ready to end this,\u201d Schiff said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t seem particularly interested or to care. And until that changes, I think we\u2019re going to be at an impasse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said Trump has been disengaged only because \u201che\u2019s had his hands full with Israel and international matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo he\u2019s had every reason to be disengaged and just to let legislators handle this themselves,\u201d she said, adding that Democrats should deal with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., instead of Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Thune \u2014 along with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. \u2014 have both made it clear that they won\u2019t negotiate directly with Democrats and that those discussions can happen only at the Appropriations Committee level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thune told NBC News that Trump will get involved in how to handle the Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of this year, which would raise premiums on millions of enrollees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the president\u2019s ready to get involved in having the discussion about the enhanced premium tax credits. But I don\u2019t think they\u2019re prepared to do that until they open up the government,\u201d he said before the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House said its position on shutdown negotiations hasn\u2019t changed since funding initially lapsed on Oct. 1. And as for any possible talks, Trump said Tuesday he would meet with Democrats only \u201cwith one major condition,\u201d which is \u201copen up the country first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A White House official told NBC News, \u201cWe are happy to have a policy conversation but not while the American people are being held hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House has urged Democrats to join Republicans in passing a stopgap measure and says it would then be open to having a discussion on health care issues and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur position has been consistent,\u201d the official said. \u201cDemocrats are wish-casting a scenario where the president comes in and gets involved\u201d because they don\u2019t have another solution right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the shutdown has dragged on, the White House has carried on with business as usual. Trump has traveled domestically and overseas, participating in more than a dozen events. At the end of this week, he will depart on a multiday trip to Asia, where he is expected to take part in several world summits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Trump\u2019s \u201crefusal to engage\u201d is prolonging the shutdown, \u201cbecause the Republicans are not in a position to want to agree to anything without his green light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe question is, when will President Trump engage? What he does, we\u2019ll solve this. If he chooses to be unengaged, we won\u2019t. Because the only way to avoid shutdowns \u2014 or the only way we get out of them \u2014 is when the president engages. Thus far, he\u2019s chosen to focus on everything else but keep the U.S. government open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he has been \u201csomewhat astonished\u201d that the self-styled \u201cultimate dealmaker\u201d has refused to deal on this matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very easily solved. There\u2019s a clear path,\u201d he said. \u201cGet in a room. Agree to extend the health care tax credits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Trump\u2019s absence, Johnson has stepped in to fill the void. Throughout the three-week shutdown, Johnson has held daily news conferences in the Capitol with members of his leadership team and a rotating cast of key Republicans, blasting Democrats for blocking the House-passed funding bill and backing what he calls the \u201cSchumer shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On top of that, he has launched an aggressive media blitz about the shutdown, doing nearly 50 interviews since Oct. 1 with TV networks, radio shows, streaming shows and print and digital outlets, Johnson\u2019s office said. They include appearances on Fox News, Newsmax, NBC News, NewsNation, MSNBC, a Wall Street Journal podcast and \u201cThe Sean Spicer Show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In each appearance, the message is the same: Johnson says he won\u2019t sit down and negotiate with Democrats over their demands because they simply need to pass the House’s continuing resolution, or CR. He has had one recent phone call with Jeffries, but neither has revealed what they discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have anything to offer,\u201d Johnson told reporters Tuesday. \u201cI don\u2019t have any partisan priority I can pull off of the CR to make it more palatable for them. There\u2019s nothing to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked Tuesday whether Trump\u2019s engagement is the key to breaking the impasse, Jeffries replied: \u201cOf course Donald Trump should come to the negotiating table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked whether Trump should get more engaged, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., responded, \u201cI don\u2019t think it could hurt, but I don\u2019t see any indication that the president\u2019s wanting to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis shutdown will stop when everybody takes their egos out back and shoots them. And that hasn\u2019t happened yet,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s still up on their high horse. And I thought they would have fallen off by now. But they haven\u2019t. So the soap opera continues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n