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Trump vents frustration with the filibuster: 'Our country needs a good shutdown
President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that the U.S. “needs a good shutdown” in September. In its first bipartisan effort, Democrats and Republicans in Congress struck a deal to keep the government funded through September. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Trump vents frustration with the filibuster: 'Our country needs a good shutdown

President Donald Trump took to Twitter Tuesday to say a government shutdown might not be such a bad idea.

In fact, he said the U.S. “needs a good shutdown” in September to remedy the “mess” on Capitol Hill.

Trump’s tweets come as Congress is poised to approve a deal that will fund the federal government through September, marking the first bipartisan legislation under the president’s nascent administration.

The funding plan does not include money for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, it doesn’t cut federal dollars going to so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to fully cooperate with federal immigration law, nor does it eliminate Planned Parenthood funding — three issues Trump wanted to see reflected in the legislation.

The deal also protects 99 percent of the funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and increases money to clean energy and science initiatives. The president wanted to slash the EPA’s budget.

The bill does, however, include $1.5 billion for border security and $15 billion for increased defense spending, though it falls short of the $30 billion Trump requested in his budget blueprint.

As for Trump’s tweet about changing the Senate rules, the president made a similar comment over the weekend in an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum.

“You look at the rules of the Senate — even the rules of the House, but the rules of the Senate — and some of the things you have to go through. It’s really a bad thing for the country, in my opinion,” he said. “They’re archaic rules. And maybe at some point, we’re gonna have to take those rules on because for the good of the nation, things are gonna have to be different.”

“You can’t go through a process like this,” he continued. “It’s not fair, it forces you to make bad decisions. I mean you’re really forced into doing things that you would normally not do, except for these archaic rules.”

When MacCallum asked what Trump would change, the president took issue with the filibuster and suggested moving away from a 60-vote minimum in the Senate to pass legislation and adopting a simple majority of 51 votes to approve a bill.

“We have so many bad concepts in our rules, and it’s forcing bad decisions,” he told the Fox anchor. “[D]ecisions that nobody wanted are made because of archaic rules, and that’s something that I think we’re gonna have to change.”

Democrats quickly pounced on Trump’s call for a “good shutdown” in the fall. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tweeted that the U.S. “needs a White House shutdown.”

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