Trump tries to steer shutdown focus to financial impact for Democrats – POLITICO

White House

President Donald Trump seemingly added a new spin to his usual shutdown rhetoric Thursday, tweeting that its economic impact disproportionately falls on Democrats.

“Have the Democrats finally realized that we desperately need Border Security and a Wall on the Southern Border. Need to stop Drugs, Human Trafficking, Gang Members & Criminals from coming into our Country,” he wrote, before pivoting to a financial — but still partisan — argument. “Do the Dems realize that most of the people not getting paid are Democrats?”

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It was not immediately clear whether Trump was referring to government workers not getting paid during the shutdown or to low-income Americans losing benefits because of the shutdown.

Trump’s firm demand for funding to build more of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border has been the crucial factor in the partial government shutdown now entering its sixth day. The president insisted on $5 billion for a wall, which cleared the Republican-led House, but Democrats refuse to pay for it. Negotiations appear to be stalled.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are being furloughed during the shutdown, and their next payday — scheduled for Jan. 11 — could be affected.

If Trump was citing salary payments to federal government workers, he might not be entirely correct. Despite his frequent claims that a “deep state” of faceless Washington bureaucrats is out to undermine him, a 2015 survey of federal government workers found that 44 percent were Democratic or Democratic-leaning, compared with 40 percent Republican or Republican-leaning.

But a growing federal workforce in the Washington area has helped tint Virginia bluer. And you’d have to drive 40 minutes from the White House — without traffic — to find the nearest precinct that broke for Trump in the 2016 election.

Trump’s tweet appeared to break from his rhetoric on Christmas, when he suggested without evidence that federal workers were largely supportive of his push for a wall and willing to go without pay to get it funded.

On the other hand, the president’s mention of “people not getting paid” could have referred to regular Americans getting cut off from government benefits. Though the federal food stamp program will still operate next month, the Women, Infants, and Children program and others “will only be operational based on available resources,” CNN reported.