 "'We are opening up our country': Trump hails 'big victory' as shutdown voting nears")
US President Donald Trump has declared victory in an effort to end the longest-ever US government shutdown, which is now headed to a final vote.
The House of Representatives is set to vote on Wednesday on a spending bill to solve the six-week standoff, after eight Democrats broke ranks in the Senate on Monday to side with Trump’s Republicans.
“Congratulations to you and to John and to everybody on a very big victory. We’re opening up our country – it should have never been closed,” Trump said in a Victory Day speech as he referred to Speaker Mike Johnson, who was in the crowd.
While Republicans are looking forward to a clean sweep in the funding voting, top Democrats are set to oppose the bill. However, the bill to fund the government and thereby restart it after the longest-ever shutdown is likely to get passed as it only needs a simple majority, which Republicans narrowly have.
From the start, Trump had piled pressure on Democrats by letting the shutdown be as punishing as possible and refusing to negotiate on their demands for health insurance.
A million federal workers went unpaid, food benefits for low-income Americans came under threat and air travellers faced thousands of cancellations and delays ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Tuesday that the chaos could get worse by the weekend if the shutdown persists, with air traffic controllers unable to be paid.
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View All“You’re going to have airlines that make serious calculations about whether they continue to fly, full stop,” Duffy told reporters at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
Meanwhile, the funding bill has created a split within the Democratic Party, with some saying that they should have held their ground for the extension of health insurance subsidies at the heart of the shutdown battle.
“Pathetic,” California Governor Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a Democratic presidential frontrunner in 2028, posted on X.
Despite opposing the bill vocally and voting against it, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has faced calls from some lawmakers to step down for failing to corral his senators.
But Senate Republicans have promised Democrats a vote on health insurance, with millions of Americans set to see their “Obamacare” costs double without an extension of the subsidies.
The healthcare issue has itself threatened to cause a rift in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” coalition.
With inputs from agencies
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