Donald Trump IS Having Reality Issues…..

Ok….

Lets admit one thing….

Donald J. Trump IS having trouble with getting things straight….

(He always lied…But this IS worse)

The guy who knocked Joe Biden ?

IS having his own issues….

This IS causing Trump’s ‘Republic party’ members to begin to ‘freelance’ their own efforts to counter the the hardline message coming from some like Trump’s OMB head Vought.

Republican lawmakers ARE realizing they have a LOSING hand on the shutdown and are quietly jumping ship….

They’ll still smile with Speaker Johnson…

But they are ALL aware their jobs come up for voter approval in a year….

Trump’s DOES NOT….

 

One week into the shutdown, Republicans are trying to stay on message — but President Donald Trump is making that difficult.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune want to show Democrats there’s no daylight inside the GOP: Republicans will negotiate a deal to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies only once the government is back open.

But Trump is causing major headaches by going off-script. On Monday, Trump pointed to health care negotiations with Democrats that didn’t appear to exist, but would have contradicted Johnson and Thune’s red line about no ACA talks until the shutdown ends.

On Tuesday, the White House further complicated matters by sending a memo stating some federal workers might not receive backpay after the shutdown’s over. Republicans scrambled to refute that message. After all, Trump himself signed legislation in 2019 guaranteeing all federal workers would be paid following a shutdown — and many Republicans voted for it.

“You can’t not pay them for work they’ve done,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told POLITICO. “I don’t think [Trump] seriously would. I think he’s playing hardball the way he sometimes does: Negotiating on the one hand, flexing leverage on the other.”

Johnson and Thune have also found themselves occasionally out of sync. During a joint news conference Tuesday, the speaker said he was “certainly open” to having the House vote on emergency legislation to pay essential personnel, like military or air traffic controllers, during the shutdown. “Honestly, you don’t need that,” Thune interjected, before reinforcing that Democrats could just vote to reopen the government.

House Republicans are also freelancing their shutdown messaging back in their districts. Rep. Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania is rolling out new legislation to bar federal income taxes from being collected during the shutdown, per a release shared first with Inside Congress. Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona has introduced a bill that would repeal Obamacare completely. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called on the Senate to get rid of the 60-vote threshold to reopen the government — a nonstarter for Thune.

Some rank-and-file senators are taking matters into their own hands. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), leaving the Senate floor Tuesday, said she had just talked to New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, one of the lead Democrats facilitating bipartisan conversations. And a bipartisan group was scheduled to meet over Thai food last night, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).

Mullin has been tapped by the administration to serve as a conduit to Democrats amid government funding talks, according to one person close to the White House.

Asked if he had been given an informal role, however, he shrugged: “I don’t have a badge.”…

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