July 29, 2018

President Trump Just Threatened a Government Shutdown—Again. And Blamed Democrats—Again.

But this time the government could close right before the crucial midterm elections.

Evan Vucci/AP

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President Donald Trump threatened on Sunday to force a government shutdown if Democrats don’t cave to his demands for stricter immigration policies, including building his long-promised border wall. 

“I would be willing to ‘shut down’ government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Must get rid of Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our country!”

Congress needs to pass legislation to fund the government by September 30, a task made increasingly difficult as the House has already gone on its summer recess. After members return, they will have only a few days to pass a stopgap spending bill before the start of the next fiscal year. Trump’s tweet raises the stakes for those negotiations, which will come just before the midterm elections and at the same time Senate Republicans attempt to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. 

A spending bill released by House Republicans this month allocates $5 billion next year for a border wall. But in the Senate, where Democrats have greater power to block legislation, a bill to fund the Homeland Security Departments includes much less—$1.6 billion.

Sunday morning’s tweet-threat came shortly after another firmly worded tweet showing the president’s neverending anger over immigration: 

If a government shutdown sounds familiar, that’s because it’s already happened this year. In January, as the deadline approached for extending DACA, Democrats demanded the government act to preserve the popular program—which allowed some immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to remain in the country—before they passed a spending bill. The White House increasingly demanded more immigration policies in exchange, and the government shut down. But Democrats soon backed down.

Since then, Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of using a government shutdown as leverage to force Congress to pass hard-line immigration policies: “I’d love to see a shutdown,” he said at a White House meeting on MS-13 in February.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

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That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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