Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) continues to insist that this administration and Republicans are not addressing Democrats’ concerns about DHS, so Trump decided to publish a list of concessions he has been willing to make, all of which were turned down by Schumer and Democrats.
We are now more than 30 days into the partial government shutdown, and even though airports are now in danger of being shut down due to TSA agents walking off the job, Schumer refuses to move off his mark.
Trump may not be willing to give Democrats everything, but he has budged; it is not enough for Schumer, so agencies like TSA remain unfunded.
The fact of the matter is that no matter how much Democrats stomp their feet, ICE was funded in the big, beautiful bill, so this is all about posturing.
After the bill was passed, Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice, according to NPR, stated, "With this new bill and other appropriations, it's larger than the annual budget of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.”
Trump made sure the agency tasked with carrying out his immigration crackdown was fully funded regardless of all else, and there is nothing Democrats can do about it now.
So, this stance they are taking is nothing more than that… a stance. They literally have no power other than to hold the rest of DHS hostage.
In September 2025, according to an NBC News report, Schumer said that he wanted to have a serious negotiation with the GOP.
At the time, he stated, “We need the meeting. It’s a first step, but only a first step. We need a serious negotiation. Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant and just yell at Democrats and talk about all his alleged grievances and say this, that and the other thing, we won’t get anything done.
“But my hope is it’ll be a serious negotiation. You don’t do this by one party putting together a completely partisan bill and saying take it or leave it.”
But that is a stretch of the truth, at best. Democrats have long been the “take it or leave it party.” They did not negotiate with the GOP… they rammed spending bills through repeatedly using reconciliation when they had the majority. This is all smoke and mirrors by Schumer.
Schumer is again spouting off in the media that the GOP is not willing to budge on key issues, but that is not true at all. The White House has not given Dems everything they want, but it did provide Fox News with a letter offering five concessions to Democrats.
The concessions offered by the White House are:
Schumer remains stuck on agents wearing face coverings and warrants, to which the administration responded, "The use of administrative warrants is a long-standing practice for administrations, and ultimately that will be a subject of future conversations, but the administration is unwilling to return to the Biden status quo of open borders.”
Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), who, along with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), is leading negotiations, tells a far different story. According to Britt, while some Democrats have expressed interest in making a deal, leadership has yet to sit down with the GOP at any time during this shutdown. We are being gaslighted by Democrats on this… they want chaos, and they are getting it, all so they can try to score more political points and win the 2026 midterm elections.
