On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the prolonging of the government shutdown is in part because President Donald Trump is afraid of his base.
Trump shut down the government in an effort to get billions in funding for his border wall. During an interview with The New York Time's Michael Barbaro for "The Daily" podcast, Schumer said that Trump is heavily influenced by the hard Right.
Schumer met with Trump early this week to negotiate to reopen the government, but that effort failed and made little progress.
"I've said that negotiating with Trump is like negotiating with jello," Schumer said.
Schumer said that Trump is not backing down from his border wall fight because he is "afraid" of his base.
"The right-wing beat the daylights out of the president, and he backed off," he said. "I think he is so afraid of the hard right base, and they should not be governing America. But Trump is letting them because he is afraid to lose his base."
Schumer added, "I know that he has said privately that 'if I lose my base I have nothing.'"
It was reported that Trump said he would not take Democrats' proposal to reopen the government because it would make him look "foolish."
Listen to the full podcast here.
