Behind closed Doors: Why Democrats Say the Shutdown Will Never End

Trump’s tuned out, Democrats are running out of leverage, and Washington is on autopilot. No one’s blinking — and everyone’s bleeding.

Welcome back to The Red Letter.

Behind closed doors last week, Senate Democrats reached a grim conclusion about the government shutdown: it’s not ending anytime soon.

The most optimistic estimate circulating among Democratic senior staffers? Late November. If you ask Republicans, it’s worse — December.

Why? Because, as one Democratic senator put it at a briefing on Wednesday bluntly, Trump doesn’t even know what’s in his own funding bill.

And even worse, as another insider said, “Trump’s bored of it.”

The mood in the Senate chamber after 12 rounds of votes is exasperated. They described a White House on autopilot and a Republican Congress too scared of Trump to negotiate — even as the country grinds to a halt.

“When [Minority Leader Hakeem] Jeffries and I met with Trump, he didn’t know all the details,” Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, according to a read out from the briefing. “He played games put red hats on the table. We got feeling he didn’t know details and wasn’t serious.”

Few who understand Trump’s Washington were surprised that he didn’t know the details. They’re more concerned that there’s no obvious off-ramp. In the meantime, Trump’s disengagement has paralyzed Congress.

Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the House out of session for more than a month — and it’s working, for now. Democrats are losing leverage. Without the House in session, there are no bills, no cameras, and no public pressure to maximize.

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“Republicans are pretty content to let this thing ride out and make the Dems eventually cave,” said a Senate Republican source. “It’s getting harder for Democrats to stay united once the Obamacare subsidies expire, and good luck getting Republicans to agree on a healthcare bill.”

Johnson’s absenteeism is a “strategic calculation,” The New York Times’ Annie Karni reported, meant to keep his fractious caucus from imploding by keeping them scattered across the country. It’s working, but at a cost. As Speaker of the House, he’s ceding his own power and a branch of government in deference to Trump, who has reportedly joked that he’s both the President and the Speaker.

Subscribe to keep reading for:

• How Democrats’ “media moment” plan fizzled and why they’re losing leverage fast

• Why a July warning from Trump’s favorite pollster, Tony Fabrizio, is reshaping how the party sees the current healthcare crisis

→ Continue reading in The Red Letter