White House: Trump is not talking to Democrats

President Donald Trump is not talking to Democrats as the government shutdown grinds into its second workweek.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the president had spoken to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, but that he had not spoken to congressional Democrats since meeting with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer just ahead of the shutdown.

“His position is very clear,” Leavitt said of Trump. “There's nothing to negotiate.”

The Senate is set to vote Monday evening on Republicans’ proposal to fund the government, but the chamber remains at an impasse, with Democrats saying they will not advance a short term stopgap without securing Republican agreement to extend soon-to-expire Obamacare subsidies impacting more than 20 million Americans.

Leavitt said Trump “is definitely committed to fixing and improving the health care system” but that he is “remaining very firm” that the government must re-open first. She repeated the White House and Republicans’ talking point that Democrats shut down the government in order to give federally funded health care to undocumented immigrants.

Federal law already prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving federally funded health care. Democrats are not pushing to change that law but are trying to restore access to health care programs for certain legally present immigrants who are not citizens.

Leavitt also warned the administration would soon be left with no choice but to fire federal workers en masse, even as prior shut downs, including those that took place during Trump’s first term, resulted only in furloughs.

“This administration wants to reopen the government,” she said. “We don't want to see people laid off. But unfortunately if this shutdown continues, layoffs are going to be an unfortunate consequence of that.”

Pressed on why the president was moving forward with the layoffs instead of the furloughs, Leavitt again slammed Democrats, saying “these conversations about layoffs would not be happening in the White House today if not for the Democrat shutdown.”

“The government is not receiving any cash, so someone has to look at the balance sheet and be good stewards of the American taxpayer dollar,” she said.

The press secretary added that the timing of those layoffs would depend on the outcome of Monday’s Senate vote.