Government Shutdown Odds Rise as Trump Calls Off Meeting With Democrats

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stand center. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The chances of the federal government shutting down rose on Tuesday after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had canceled a planned meeting for later in the week with top Democratic lawmakers.

After Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, demanded a meeting with Trump ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline, the president had agreed to meet with them this Thursday, several media outlets reported.

Then Trump called it off. “I have decided that no meeting with their congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” he wrote in a Tuesday morning post on Truth Social.

That caused odds of a shutdown on Oct. 1 to rise to 65%, up from 59% Monday night after the meeting was reported, on betting site Polymarket.

The president did leave the door open on the possibility of a meeting in the future, however. “I look forward to meeting with them if they get serious about the future of our Nation,” he added.

Jeffries responded to the cancellation in a social media post of his own, saying, “The extremists want to shut down the government because they are unwilling to address the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating America.”

Schumer wrote, “When you’re finished ranting, we can sit down and discuss health care.”

After passing in the House, a Republican-backed funding bill failed to clear the Senate last Friday. Democrats object to it, because it doesn’t reinstate healthcare funding that was cut over the summer. The bill would have kept the government open through Nov. 21.

Write to Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com