RULES FOR THEE

Florida-Bound Trump Insists Senators ‘Not Leave Town’ to Deal With Shutdown

The president made the demand shortly before taking off for Mar-a-Lago.

President Donald Trump issued a stern missive aimed at senators currently in the midst of a gridlock on ending the government shutdown, strongly suggesting they not leave town until a deal has been struck.

“The United States Senate should not leave town until they have a Deal to end the Democrat Shutdown,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “If they can’t reach a Deal, the Republicans should terminate the Filibuster, IMMEDIATELY, and take care of our Great American Workers!”

Shortly thereafter, he himself left town, boarding Air Force One bound for Mar-a-Lago.

The president also doubled down on his demand that Republicans in the Senate take advantage of the “nuclear option” and terminate the filibuster, which would allow them to pass the funding bill necessary to end the shutdown.

The shutdown, which is now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, is set to continue through the weekend after Republicans once again refused a proposed compromise from Senate Democrats.

On Friday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed attaching a one-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies to a spending stopgap, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune immediately dismissed it as a “nonstarter.”

Senators were already anticipating staying in D.C. over the weekend before the president posted his message, something Thune told Politico he has tried to avoid.

“We will continue to proceed forward in hopes at some point that we’ll get a chance to vote—whether that’s today or tomorrow—on a package of bills that we have been negotiating with Democrats,” Thune told the outlet.

Trump’s decision to swap D.C. for Florida as senators remain in town to hash out a deal drew the ire of many, with MeidasNews Editor-in-Chief Ron Filipkowski posting a video of Trump boarding Air Force One on X and writing, “With the government shut down, flights cancelled, and hungry people going without SNAP benefits, Trump leaves his newly gilded palace for another weekend of golf and parties in Palm Beach.”

While Trump has Air Force One at his disposal, countless Americans have been affected by the cancellation of over 1,000 flights across the country after the FAA announced Wednesday that it would seek to reduce air traffic by 10 percent as the shutdown continues to stretch its resources.

“We do recognize that the controllers have been working fastidiously for the last five weeks with this huge burden over their head of lack of compensation, and we are starting to see some evidence that that fatigue is building,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said.

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Catherine BourisReporter

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