President Donald Trump weighed in on the longest-running government shutdown in U.S. history on Monday evening, along with a myriad other issues, during a wide-ranging interview.
Trump said Republicans “broke” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) over the shutdown during an appearance on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle. Some Democratic lawmakers are accusing Schumer of being a failed leader and calling on him to step down after the GOP appeared to gain enough Senate Democratic votes in the upper chamber on Monday to pass a Republican measure to open the government.
“I think he made a mistake in going too far. He just went too far. He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him,” Trump said when pressed on the controversy.
“Look, we have good policy, they have bad policy,” the president continued. “I feel badly because I’ve known Chuck Schumer. I knew him when he was a person who loved Israel, and now he’s a Palestinian. He’s become a Palestinian, and it’s amazing. I’ve never seen a politician change so much. … He was a pretty talented guy. He’s lost his talent.”
Reforms to Obamacare?
Schumer had led Senate Democrats in blocking the House-passed CR to open the government due to concerns that it did not contain a provision extending Obamacare subsidies.
Trump said Monday he preferred sending Obamacare funding directly to beneficiaries instead of insurance companies, calling the federal health program “a disaster” and “horrible health insurance at a very high price.” The president floated calling his proposal to instead funnel the funds into personal Health Savings Accounts for the public “Trumpcare.”
“It’s so good, the insurance will be better. It’ll cost less. Everybody’s going to be happy,” Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “They’re going to feel like entrepreneurs are actually able to go out and their own health insurance. That’s the beauty, only for that purpose. And if we did that, that would be so exciting. Call it Trumpcare. Call it whatever you want to call it, but anything but Obamacare.”
Bonuses for air traffic controllers
The president elaborated on his idea to award $10,000 bonuses to air traffic controllers who continued to report to work without pay during the shutdown. He called it “the American way,” while saying, “I don’t know, I’ll get it from someplace” when pressed on where funding for the bonuses would come from.
“I always get the money from someplace. Regardless. It doesn’t matter. We did a lot of, I do a lot of bonuses with people because it’s really something that, it’s like the American way, when you think about it,” he said.
“So here’s somebody that goes and shows up every single day. Some of them showed up early because they knew there was going to be a problem. Those people should be rewarded. Others — ’We couldn’t. We can’t make it. We can’t.’ You know, a lot of the people that showed up also had a second job. They took a second job temporarily, but they all know the money’s coming and the money was coming. So I want to reward the people that showed up without a lot of nonsense, without a lot of talk. They did the job, and in many cases, they worked longer hours to get us through this period,” Trump added.
The 50-year mortgage
Trump was questioned about an idea he proposed alongside Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte over the weekend, calling for a 50-year mortgage.
Trump had previously endorsed the plan enthusiastically. However, he seemed to downplay it on Monday in the wake of widespread conservative backlash and a Politico report indicating that Pulte had blindsided and angered Trump’s White House team by pitching the president directly about his idea.
“It’s not even a big deal,” Trump told Ingraham. “I mean, you know, you go from 40 to 50 years, and whatever ages you pay, you pay something less from 30 that some people had a 40, and then now they have a 50. All it means is you pay less per month. You pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit.”
Reforms to SNAP?
Trump was pressed on whether he would support reforms for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a food stamps program that has come under scrutiny during the shutdown.
The president said “of course,” he’d back changes, suggesting concerns that some beneficiaries are abusing the welfare program.
“People that need it have to get it. I’m all for it. But people that are able-bodied, can do a job; they leave their job because they figure they can pick this up, it’s easier. That’s not the purpose of it,” Trump said. “It really puts the country in jeopardy.”
“SNAP is supposed to be, if you’re down and out. You really, really have — that’s what the purpose of it. People are going in, they walk in and they get it automatically now, so the number is many times what it should be,” he added.
China and MAGA divisions
Trump continued to respond to another policy decision he made that has split conservative influencers. Namely, Trump’s move to allow 600,000 students from China to study at U.S colleges and universities as part of a broader trade deal the United States made with Beijing.
The president took a pragmatic approach to the debate, arguing that Republican figures claiming his decision belies the “America First” approach that fueled the MAGA movement are misreading the room. Trump expressed confidence that MAGA voters are with him, downplaying concerns that there are fractures in the sweeping political movement he sparked when he launched his first presidential run in 2015.
“You don’t want to cut half of the people, half of the students from all over the world that are coming into our country, destroy our entire university and college system. I don’t want to do that. I wouldn’t lose anything. MAGA was my idea. MAGA was nobody else’s idea. I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else, and MAGA wants to see our country thrive,” Trump said.
He suggested that a productive relationship with China, including collaboration on education, could ease tensions and help avert a possible war. And Chinese students coming into the U.S. boost the economy by “trillions,” Trump said.
“You know, the students pay more than double when they come in from most foreign countries. I want to see our school system thrive,” he said. “And it’s not that I want them, but I view it as a business. We have millions and millions of people also. I want to get along with countries, if possible, people are shocked. … I stopped eight wars in the last nine months. I don’t want to be in wars. If I am in a war, we’re going to win the thing. It’ll be violent. I don’t want to be in wars.”
Melania and the East Wing demolition
The president responded to outcry over his move to authorize the demolition of the historic East Wing of the White House, where the first lady’s office is traditionally located, to make room for his new ballroom.
And the president pushed back on the idea that he ripped apart a historic treasure, saying, “It was a beautiful structure many years ago that was renovated and expanded and disbanded and columns ripped out, and it had nothing to do with the original building.”
SENATE TAKES FIRST STEP TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT, FUELING DEMOCRATIC SPLIT
First lady Melania Trump, her husband suggested, was initially not fully on board with the idea.
“She loved her tiny little office,” the president said. “But you know what? She’s very smart. In about one day, think, if you were to ask her now, she says, ‘It’s great.’ But just so you understand, the East Wing sounds good, right? But the East Wing, that building, was renovated 20 times, including adding a floor to the top, which was terrible. It was at a common brick, little tiny windows. It looked like hell. It had nothing to do with the original building.”
