Will Trump Let The Government Shut Down? 'It Depends On When You Have Spoken To Him Last,' Republican Says

On the eve of a possible government shutdown Friday night, Democrats and Republicans are no longer blaming one another, but uniting to blame President Donald Trump for damaging negotiations by party officials to fund the government.

On Thursday morning, the president undermined Republican attempts to keep the government open by saying that an extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program should not be part of the stopgap spending bill currently in Congress.

"CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!" the president tweeted.

The extension of the program was part of a well-negotiated Republican funding measure intended to buy time to continue working with Democrats on a final spending bill by keeping the federal government funded until February 16.

House Speaker Paul Ryan worked to pressure Democrats into signing the bill by leveraging the popular children's healthcare program.

"I feel that it makes no sense for Democrats to try and bring us to a shutdown, to try and cut off CHIP funding for the states that are running out of money, like Minnesota and Washington and Kentucky and other states," he said Wednesday. But now Democrats have an easy counter argument: the president wants the measure out of the bill.

Trump's Thursday tweet undermined an official statement released by the White House on Wednesday stating its support of the stopgap measure.

Last week, the president derailed another attempt at bipartisan negotiation during a closed-door Oval Office meeting with lawmakers. Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham thought they had been invited to present a bipartisan immigration plan that would keep the government open and halve the visa lottery, which Trump wanted to completely eliminate.

But they arrived to find that Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller had invited a cadre of immigration hard-liners who opposed the plan. And Trump himself inflamed emotions on both sides when he expressed his anger about immigration to the U.S. from "shithole countries."

The president has also remained insistent that the government will shut down unless Democrats agree fund construction of a wall along the Mexican border.

"We need the Wall for the safety and security of our country. We need the Wall to help stop the massive inflow of drugs from Mexico, now rated the number one most dangerous country in the world. If there is no Wall, there is no Deal!" he tweeted early Thursday.

The blame game along both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue is the latest salvos in an ongoing Republican civil war.

"Republicans in Congress are blaming Trump while Trump is blaming his own party's leadership in an erratic, chaotic process that boils down to a wall the President promised Mexico would pay for," said Andrew Bates of American Bridge, a progressive research organization.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested on Wednesday that the president's mercurial nature is hurting congressional negotiators.

"I'm looking for something that President Trump supports, and he has not yet indicated what measure he is willing to sign," he said. "As soon as we figure out what he is for, then I would be convinced that we were not just spinning our wheels."

Graham took to the Senate floor Wednesday to deliver a message to the president, "What I saw Tuesday was a man that understood what America was all about," he said. "What I find today is complete chaos."

Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) also took a jab at the president, rehashing a common criticism of Trump. "I think it depends on when you have spoken to him last," he said when asked why the president no longer appears to agree with the Republican stance on the stopgap bill. "And who was advising him last."

Meanwhile, the administration is firing back. "We're all frustrated," Marc Short, White House director of legislative affairs, said on Fox News on Wednesday. "This is not the way that Congress is supposed to work. They're supposed to have a funding bill completed by September 30. We are now in mid-January."

The White House is privately saying it will hammer all of Congress, not just Democrats—if no agreement is made. Officials have also made it clear that Congressional conservatives will not receive political cover if they vote against the stopgap measure, multiple administration sources told Politico.

These contradictory actions put Republicans in a confusing situation as they scramble to forge a deal that not only meets the whims of their party's leader, but also brings Democrats on board. As they inch closer to the January 19 deadline, they face the very possible scenario that this will be the first time the federal government has shutdown with one party in control, during a midterm election year no less.