Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), riding a wave of legislative victories during the early months of President Donald Trump’s second term, issued a sharp warning this weekend: Democrats may be willing to risk a government shutdown to appease their party’s increasingly radical left wing.
Appearing on Sunday Morning Futures with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Thune addressed the looming September 30 deadline to fund the government for the next fiscal year.
While Republicans have begun moving appropriations bills through the Senate Appropriations Committee, Thune said Democrats have largely obstructed the process, raising concerns about whether they’ll cooperate or force a stalemate.
“We’ve got a couple, three or four of them now reported out of the Appropriations Committee,” Thune said. “We’re going to try and get one up on the floor next week. And I hope we will find that the Democrats want to work with us.”
But so far, he added, Democrats have demonstrated little interest in bipartisanship. “It’s obstruct, it’s delay, it’s block. That’s been the pattern. And it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome on full display here in the United States Senate,” Thune remarked, suggesting that partisan hostility is clouding the judgment of Democratic leadership.
At the center of the current tension is a $9 billion rescissions package passed by the Republican-controlled Congress — a measure that targets what conservatives view as bloated, ideologically driven spending.
Among the cuts were funds designated for foreign aid and public broadcasting programs — priorities for the Democratic Party but seen by many Republicans as examples of Washington excess.
Democratic leaders, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), responded with fury, calling the GOP-led effort a betrayal of prior bipartisan agreements. “If Republicans cave to Donald Trump and gut these investments agreed to by both parties, that would be an affront — a huge affront — to the bipartisan appropriations process,” Schumer declared on the Senate floor.
He criticized the GOP for crafting rescissions packages “behind closed doors” and advancing them without the traditional 60-vote threshold, though Republicans note that the package was passed using lawful procedures available under Senate rules.
Thune did not rule out the possibility that Schumer and his allies might welcome a shutdown.
When asked directly by Bartiromo whether Schumer might view such a move as politically advantageous, Thune replied, “I think he probably thinks that it’s beneficial to their political base, the far left of the Democrat Party.”
He pointed to New York politics as an example of the Democrats’ internal tug-of-war, referencing the recent primary win of socialist Zohran Mamdani in the race for New York City mayor.
“This is a party struggling for an identity. This is a party that’s completely out of step with the mainstream of this country.”
While Thune expressed hope for bipartisan cooperation to keep the government running, he acknowledged that recent Democratic behavior suggests otherwise. “We’re going to be waiting to see anxiously what Chuck Schumer and other leaders on the Democrat side decide to do,” he said.
“Because, ultimately, keeping the government funded is good for the country. But if their recent track record is any indication, they’re under a tremendous amount of pressure from that far left wing of the Democrat Party to shut the government down.”
With the September deadline fast approaching, the question remains whether Democrats will join Republicans in governing — or once again use obstruction to score political points.
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