President Donald Trump took to Twitter Saturday morning to blame Democrats for the government shutdown that began hours earlier, after Senate Republicans failed to capture enough votes to move toward a short-term funding bill. A vote late Friday night that would have prompted a vote on a continuing resolution, or CR, to fund the government for 30 days fell far short of 60 votes, and senators could not devise a plan in the eleventh hour to stop a shutdown.
Mr. Trump blamed Democrats, who are the minority in the Senate, saying they care more about illegal immigration than the military. Democrats wanted a solution to fix the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program Mr. Trump is ending, something Republicans did not agree to as a part of negotiations.
Given that the GOP only has 50 senators, and the measures Friday required 50 votes, Mr. Trump made the case for the need for more Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections.
The president began tweeting at 6:17 a.m. Saturday, six hours after the government shut down.
Mr. Trump also said: “This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present.”
Mr. Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20 last year. He was scheduled to attend a party celebrating that anniversary at his club Mar-a-Lago in Florida Saturday, but his trip was postponed indefinitely in light of the shutdown.
In May, the president suggested the country “needs a good shutdown,” comments that resurfaced Friday night.
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