Donald Trump canceled a meeting with Democratic lawmakers intended to avoid a possible federal government shutdown, posting a rant to social media blaming transgender people for the budget crisis.

Lawmakers left D.C. last week without passing a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. The Senate rejected a measure passed by the House and another proposed by Democrats to fund the government through November 20. The Democratic measure included an extension of health insurance subsidies for plans under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year.

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Trump was supposed to have a meeting with Democratic leaders on Thursday, but he canceled it yesterday after he was pressured by GOP congressional leaders, according to CNN. And instead of just canceling the meeting, he posted a long, truth-challenged, single-paragraph rant to Truth Social.

“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive. They are threatening to shut down the Government of the United States,” he wrote, before listing the demands that he thought Democrats would have made at the meeting.

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Those demands included “new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens (A monumental cost!),” a reference to the ACA subsidies. But he also cited several transgender rights policies, including “allow men to play in women’s sports,” “essentially create Transgender operations for everybody,” and “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors.”

It’s unlikely Democrats would have asked for any of that. First, surgeries related to gender-affirming care are almost never performed on minors; gender-affirming care for young people is mostly about letting them explore their gender identities before the permanent effects of puberty start to take hold and hormone therapy for older teenagers. Second, Democrats and LGBTQ+ advocates don’t want to allow “men” to play women’s sports; the debate is about transgender women, who are women. Last, no one is asking for “transgender operations for everybody” since the vast majority of people are not transgender and therefore their health would not be improved as a result. The last one is part of the rightwing conspiracy theory that LGBTQ+ people and allies want to turn cisgender people trans for reasons that are never explained.

Trump’s rant continued on, and he claimed he won in 2024 in “A HISTORIC LANDSLIDE,” which he did not. He didn’t even win a majority of the popular vote.

“All Congressional Democrats want to do is enact Radical Left Policies that nobody voted for — High Taxes, Open Borders, No Consequences for Violent Criminals, Men in Women’s Sports, Taxpayer-funded ‘TRANSGENDER’ surgery, and much more,” he wrote. “Few people voted for what they represent, which would lead to the destruction of America.”

Throughout his rant, he blamed Democrats for the potential shutdown, even though Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House. Republicans could vote to fund the federal government without any help from Democrats.

“To the Leaders of the Democrat Party, the ball is in your court,” he wrote.

“Trump Always Chickens Out,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) posted to X. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of “running away from the negotiating table before he even gets there.”

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