As the government shutdown enters its second month, President Trump has spent two full weeks outside of Washington. This is a shift from how past presidents, including Trump, have approached shutdown politics.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump, who prides himself on dealmaking, is showing no interest in a deal with Democrats.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
He spent the weekend in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago resort, far from Washington – one of five trips the president has taken since the government shutdown began. Last night, while traveling on Air Force One, a reporter asked the president, what’s your role in ending the shutdown? He said it’s up to Democrats.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: All they have to do is vote to open the country, and we only need five Democrats.
MARTIN: In other words, he’s hoping a few Democrats defect and reopen the government with no deal on the health insurance subsidies that Democrats have been holding out for. Coming up, we’ll speak with one of those Democrats, Senator Chris Van Hollen. First though…
INSKEEP: NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith finds the president’s departures depart from past practice. Tam, good morning.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: Couldn’t resist a dad joke. Where’s the president been?
KEITH: Last week, President Trump spent less than 24 hours in Washington. The bulk of the week was devoted to a three-stop tour of Asia, where he met with leaders and talked trade. Then he was only back at the White House very briefly before departing for Florida, where on Friday, he hosted a glitzy Halloween party with a roaring ’20s Great Gatsby vibe – think sequins, feathers, fedoras. The official theme was A Little Party Never Killed Nobody. But this comes as federal workers have missed paychecks. SNAP benefits for millions of Americans didn’t arrive over the weekend, and travel delays are stacking up.
INSKEEP: Delays are stacking up for everybody else but not for the president who’s traveling. So how does his schedule compare with past presidents in this situation?
KEITH: Adding it all up, Trump has been on the road 15 days since the shutdown began on October 1. That’s more than double the travel he did in his first term during the longest shutdown in history, and significantly more than Presidents Clinton and Obama did during the shutdowns when they were president. Clinton, Obama and first-term Trump all canceled planned international travel because of government shutdowns. But in his second term, Trump just isn’t adjusting his schedule. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly defended the president, saying, in short, the president was making great deals for America and shouldn’t stop just because Democrats are refusing to do their jobs.
INSKEEP: OK. Why does it matter that he wouldn’t stop?
KEITH: Well, other presidents have felt they needed to stay in D.C. to get a deal done, or at least look like they were trying. This time around, Democrats say they want to negotiate, but Trump says he won’t do it. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a short-term funding bill back in September and has been on recess ever since. The goal is to put pressure on Senate Democrats to fold and vote for the House bill. I spoke with Doug Heye, who was a top Republican congressional aide during the 2013 shutdown. And he’s often critical of Trump, but in this case, he says, strategically, there’s no reason for the president to change his plans.
DOUG HEYE: House leadership has a very simple message. We’ve done our job. Let’s not hold anything hostage, and let’s just keep the government open. And so if that is your baseline argument, then you don’t need the House of Representatives to be in session, and you don’t need the president necessarily to be in town either.
INSKEEP: OK. I get the political strategy, but the shutdown is causing real pain. Can it last?
KEITH: Well, there appear to be the beginnings of some bipartisan conversations happening in the Senate, but that comes after an unproductive month. Leon Panetta was White House chief of staff during the 1995 shutdown and says a shutdown used to be treated like a crisis.
LEON PANETTA: The very people that we elect to try to deal with these kinds of issues have basically abdicated their responsibility.
KEITH: Panetta was pretty exasperated when we spoke, telling me that what’s happening now is depressing and a failure of leadership.
INSKEEP: NPR’s Tamara Keith. Thanks so much.
KEITH: You’re welcome.
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