Americans awoke Wednesday to the first federal government shutdown in seven years, and President Donald Trump used the moment to troll his political rivals.The president shared on social media a photo taken during a White House meeting the previous day, showing Democratic leaders arriving for negotiations. In the image, House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) appears to glance sideways as Trump points in his direction with a smile.
wo hats emblazoned with “TRUMP 2028” are visible on the Resolute Desk.
According to those present, the photo was taken just moments before the room broke into laughter at a joke by Vice President J.D. Vance, who declined to elaborate when asked later about the significance of the hats.
House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) faced pressure from President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a final round of negotiations just hours before government funding expired.
According to accounts from the meeting, each Democratic leader was offered a Diet Coke—Trump’s preferred beverage—alongside a “Trump 2028” hat.
Jeffries later disputed during a CNN interview that he had been given any campaign merchandise.
“He did not try to hand us the Trump 2028 hat. They just randomly appeared in the middle of the meeting on the desk. It was the strangest thing ever,” he said.
Despite moments of levity surrounding the negotiations, the lapse in federal funding is expected to have serious consequences.
Tens of thousands of government employees are likely to lose their positions permanently, as President Donald Trump has vowed to reduce the size of the federal workforce significantly. Public sector unions have urged Democratic leaders to prepare for short-term disruption.
Only a fraction of the government’s roughly three million employees will continue to receive pay as “emergency” personnel. The military’s 1.3 million active-duty service members will also continue working but without pay during the shutdown.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible – that are bad for them and irreversible by them – by cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” he said from the Oval Office, as reported by the Daily Mail.
“A lot of good can come from shutdowns,” Trump added later.
Senate Democrats blocked the House-passed clean resolution on Wednesday, prolonging the shutdown. The measure, which needed 60 votes to advance, failed 55-45.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), a member of the Senate Democratic leadership team, joined Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Sen. Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, in voting for the GOP funding proposal.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is increasingly drawing heat from both sides of the aisle for his refusal to back a clean continuing resolution bill to keep the government funded into November.
Schumer, who in the past has opposed shutdowns, is being waylaid by Republicans, as expected, but also from some Democratic circles and members of the media who are usually deferential to his party.
Many of the Democratic Party’s left-wing faction were apoplectic at Schumer for providing Democratic votes in March to keep the government funded. So this time, Schumer is placating them, but that has led Republicans to label the current impasse the “Schumer Shutdown” — which appears to be catching on. And if it sticks, that will hurt his party more in the long run.
Still, Schumer may be more concerned about his own political future. There have been strong rumors that one of the House’s most left-leaning members, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is eying a primary challenge against him in 2028.
And since the far left was the most upset about his decision in March to help Republicans keep the government open, his move now to allow it to shut down now is being viewed through the lens of political survival, regardless of what it does to the country or to his party.
