Chuck Schumer Wins Trump’s Praise After Shutdown Surrender

Chuck Schumer’s spineless flip on passing the House GOP funding bill has made him Trump’s new favorite Democrat—a dreadful look for the Senate minority leader.

On Thursday, Schumer announced he would vote to pass the GOP’s budget bill that would keep the government funded through September and avoid a government shutdown, despite signaling that he wouldn’t pass the bill the day before.

“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing—Took ‘guts’” and courage! The big Tax Cuts, L.A. fire fix, Debt Ceiling Bill, and so much more, is coming,” Trump posted on Truth Social Friday morning.

“Again, really good and smart move by Senator Schumer. This could lead to something big for the USA, a whole new direction and beginning!” Trump added.

The bill, which narrowly passed in the Republican-led House this week, is a disaster, and all but one House Democrat voted against it. It would gut funding for health care and homeless shelters, increase military spending, fund mass deportation, and codify Trump’s plan to dismantle the federal government.

Schumer is on board, arguing that a shutdown would be worse than passing the bill because it would give Trump and Elon Musk “carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.”

“It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s choice,” Schumer said Thursday. “Either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown. This, in my view, is no choice at all.”

The shocking announcement has Democrats from left to center seething, and many are pushing for Representative Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez to take Schumer’s seat.

Trump, though, couldn’t be happier. He’s one step closer to funding his outrageous plans for autocracy, and Schumer could help him get there.

Despite being back in the Oval Office, Donald Trump is still stuck in the past.

In an early morning Truth Social rant Friday, the president continued to blame all his problems on President Joe Biden. Those problems ran the gamut from the Ukraine-Russia War (which started in 2014), the October 7 attack on an Israeli music festival, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, inflation and the economy, and “illegals” at the border.

In an effort to skirt the ire of the nation under his increasingly unpopular policies, Trump claimed that the 2020 election conspiracy was the fulcrum of the country’s woes, urging that “THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS TO US SHOULD GO TO JAIL.”

“Crooked Joe Biden got us into a real ‘mess’ with Russia (and EVERYTHING ELSE!), but I’m going to get us out,” Trump posted. “Millions of people are needlessly dead, never to be seen again … and there will be many more to follow if we don’t get the Cease Fire and Final Agreement with Russia completed and signed. There would have been NO WAR if I were President. It just, 100%, would not have happened.

“Likewise, there would have been no October 7th with Israel, the pullout from Afghanistan would have been done with strength and pride, and would not have been the most embarrassing day in the history of our Country, it could have been a moment of glory,” Trump continued.

“Also, there would not have been any perceptible inflation—Instead we had Record Setting, Country Destroying Inflation, like we have never seen before. Also, we would have had an impenetrable Border, with very few illegals getting in.

“Oh, what a difference A RIGGED & CROOKED ELECTION HAD ON OUR COUNTRY, AND THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS TO US SHOULD GO TO JAIL! GOD BLESS AMERICA AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump added.

But it may just be easier for Trump to reimagine the past than it is for him to confront the future. Trump’s own economic plans have sparked fears that the country—which just last year had a strong economy—could be en route for a recession. Trump’s own foreign policy, which involves a global trade war, has instigated unrest with some of America’s longest allies, and his administration’s handling of the Ukraine conflict has led a coalition of countries to question if they should continue sharing intelligence with the Pentagon.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Friday that she would be cracking down on intelligence leaks.

Gabbard announced in a post on X that the ODNI was aware of several leaks within the intelligence community to publications including NBC News, HuffPost, and The Washington Post, among others.

“Our nation’s Intelligence Community must be focused on our national security mission. Politically motivated leaks undermine our national security and the trust of the American people, and will not be tolerated,” Gabbard wrote. 

“Unfortunately, such leaks have become commonplace with no investigation or accountability.  That ends now. We know of and are aggressively pursuing recent leakers from within the Intelligence Community and will hold them accountable.”

“Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such,” Gabbard wrote in a separate post. 

Gabbard’s list of (what are considered by the right to be) liberal publications signals that her office intends to focus on targeting leaks to publications that report rigorously and critically on Donald Trump’s administration. 

Her threat to crack down on leaks exists within the greater context of threats made against the media by the Trump administration. After Trump entered the White House in January, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it would investigate NPR and PBS. Project 2025, the authoritarian playbook for Trump’s second administration, called for the government to strip noncommercial education stations of their federal funding and licenses.

Of course, Trump’s targets extend beyond liberal publications to any news outlet that dares undermine his mandate. On Thursday, Trump railed against The Wall Street Journal after it reported that business leaders were only pretending to love his disastrous tariffs sinking the stock market. 

Senator Chuck Schumer’s decision Thursday to vote for the House GOP funding bill seems to have been the final straw for House Democrats—many of whom are now urging Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to mount a primary challenge against the Senate minority leader.

The New York congresswoman is in Leesburg, Virginia, with her Democratic colleagues for a policy retreat, and has been urging Senate counterparts to fight against the GOP continuing resolution.

“I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters, saying she and other House Democrats are “texting, calling, sending carrier pigeons” to get the Democratic base to rally against Schumer’s plan to support the Republican bill.

“We have time to correct course on this decision. Senate Democrats can vote no. We can correct course, and that is the most important thing in front of us right now,” added Ocasio-Cortez, calling out Democratic senators for deciding to “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution.”

And privately, House Democrats, angry with Schumer, are telling her that she should run against Schumer when he is up for reelection in 2028, CNN reports, citing an unnamed member of Congress. Several Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as others encouraged Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday night to run against Schumer.

According to the unnamed representative, even centrist Democrats were “so mad” that they were “ready to write checks for AOC for Senate.” Ocasio-Cortez declined to comment on challenging Schumer, saying she was focused on getting Democrats in the Senate to vote no. She noted that all but one House Democrat opposed the GOP bill, unlike in the Senate.

“There are members of Congress who have won Trump-held districts in some of the most difficult territory in the United States who walked the plank and took innumerable risks in order to defend the American people, in order to defend Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Just to see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think is a huge slap in the face. And I think there is a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned.”

Ocasio-Cortez has been vocal and effective in criticizing President Trump and Elon Musk, calling out everything from Trump’s attempt to deport activist Mahmoud Khalil to the president’s lies about January’s deadly D.C. plane crash. While 2028 is still three years away, the New York congresswoman is visibly fighting against the Trump and Republican agenda, and drawing support from unusual places.

Donald Trump and his Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought plan to impound federal spending after Congress passes a budget to avoid government shutdown, setting up a major legal fight with Congress.

Trump and Vought, a Project 2025 alum, plan to impound some of the funds Congress allocates before the government shutdown deadline on Friday, Fox News reports. The move would violate the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which Trump and his supporters have called unconstitutional, as it prevents the president from spending money appropriated by Congress in a different way.

A direct challenge to the law would prompt a legal fight that would very likely be decided by the Supreme Court and threaten the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution. If the executive branch gains impoundment power, Trump and future presidents would have much more power, with Congress significantly weakened.

Right now, the Senate is at a standstill over budget discussions, with Democrats standing in the way of Republicans’ attempts to pass a continuing resolution. The GOP needs eight Democrats to join them to pass it, and they are having trouble convincing enough to do so.

Vought’s role in Trump’s plans raises serious questions as he was one of the authors of the conservative Project 2025 manifesto, which seeks to completely remake the federal government, and by extension the country as a whole, to serve right-wing cultural and business interests. Impounding funds has worrying short-term consequences, but in the long term, could be part of an even more sinister strategy.