President Donald Trump used a Monday night appearance on Fox News to argue that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “made a mistake in going too far” during the weeks-long government shutdown, contending that the Democratic leader miscalculated Republican durability and pushed his caucus toward an internal revolt. “He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him,” Trump said.
The remarks landed at a moment of visible Democratic dissent. Eight Senate Democrats crossed the aisle on Sunday to back a House plan to reopen the government, and the Senate followed on Monday with a 60–40 vote to end the standoff—an outcome Democratic leaders had blocked repeatedly in prior votes. The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, had begun to create cascading disruptions: federal workers furloughed or working without pay, significant flight delays and cancellations, and interruptions in food-assistance benefits.
Trump framed the conflict as a fight over Democratic demands tied to healthcare access for undocumented immigrants, an argument Republican leaders have pressed as they seek to define the shutdown’s legacy. “What they really wanted was $1.5 trillion for people that came in illegally, people that come in through and out of prisons,” Trump said. “We’re trying to get them out, because we don’t want 11,000 murderers in our country. You don’t it. Nobody wants it. And we have drug dealers, and we have everything else, and they wanted to make sure they got good healthcare.”
.@POTUS on Chuck Schumer and the Democrats: "He thought he could break the Republicans, and the Republicans broke him… We have good policy, they have bad policy… I don't know if it's Trump Derangement or are they just crazed?… you have some that are absolutely terrible!" pic.twitter.com/5UyoUw72JP
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 11, 2025
He warned that diverting federal resources in this manner would squeeze legal residents already facing steep insurance costs under the Affordable Care Act, whose premiums he said “have gone up like rocket ships.” As an alternative, he promoted a shift toward personal health-spending accounts, casting them as a market-driven mechanism for consumers to negotiate their own coverage. “I want, instead of going to the insurance companies, I want the money to go to an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance,” he said. “They’re actually able to go out and negotiate their own insurance.”
Criticism of Schumer has also intensified inside the Democratic Party, with figures such as Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, publicly urging new leadership.
Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced. If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) November 10, 2025
Trump, reflecting on his long acquaintance with the New York senator, asserted that Schumer’s political identity had shifted dramatically. “I feel badly ‘cause I know Chuck Schumer,” Trump said. “I’ve known him since he was a person who loved Israel, and now he’s a Palestinian. He’s become a Palestinian… I’ve never seen a politician change so much.”
With another funding deadline looming on January 30, 2026, Trump indicated he is backing legislation designed to prevent similar brinkmanship in the future. “Well, we’re trying to put in a bill, as you know, or a bill that you can never do that again,” he said. “You can’t just shut down the government because you’re trying renegotiate a deal that you didn’t.”
