WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 16: U.S. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (R) and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) (L) brief members of the press during a news conference on the government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on October 16, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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Capitol Hill remains in an impasse as the government shutdown enters its third week — and Democrats say their lack of confidence in President Donald Trump is a major obstacle to negotiations.
In past legislative conflicts, bipartisan coalitions known as “gangs” have formed to break deadlocks. The groups helped establish the first framework for major agreements before gaining buy-in from leaders and other lawmakers.
In the current context of lack of funding – which is already longer than most previous government shutdowns – these gangs are nowhere to be found.
“What good is an agreement by a group of four, eight or twelve, when the President of the United States considers himself his own law and does not respect the norms and rules?” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told CNBC.
There have been bipartisan discussions around Democrats’ key demand: an expansion of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced health insurance premium tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
But no specific group has come together to sort out these details, or more broadly to negotiate an end to the shutdown.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who supports expanding the tax credits, said he has had conversations with several Democratic senators, but no defined group has formed.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., holds up the continuing resolution to fund the government during a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on the shutdown of the U.S. Capitol, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
“What’s different is I don’t feel any fusion,” Hawley said. “There doesn’t seem to be any sort of momentum around people saying, ‘OK, really, we need to make a deal.'”
Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued that no negotiations could take place until the government reopened. They need the support of about eight Democratic senators to pass a stopgap bill that will temporarily restore federal funding to current levels.
Thune told MSNBC on Wednesday that he offered Democratic leaders a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies in exchange for opening up the government.
But Democrats have expressed serious doubts about a possible handshake deal with Republicans.
“We need a path forward that decisively addresses the Republican health care crisis.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“They can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer,” Jeffries said.
Asked about Democratic skepticism, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CNBC: “The entire administration has been very clear: The president is happy to have a conversation about health care policy, but he won’t do so while Democrats hold the American people hostage.” »
Democrats fear Trump will torpedo any deal he reaches with Republican lawmakers, as he has done in the past. For example, a bipartisan immigration reform proposal introduced last year collapsed after Trump publicly opposed it.
Some Democrats are now calling on Trump to participate in the negotiations himself.
“They seem to be following his lead on everything,” Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, said Thursday of his Republican colleagues on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“That’s how it ends,” Kelly said.
Trust in the Trump administration is being further eroded by the Trump administration’s push to rescind billions of dollars in funding approved by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, Sen. Chris Coons, D-D., told reporters.
“There has been a loss of trust between Senate Democrats, the administration and the House because of what has happened over the last six to nine months in terms of following through on the bipartisan spending bills that were signed into law last year,” Coons said.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., of avoiding negotiations in order to appease progressives in his party, who criticized him after he voted to fund the government in March.
“I think he’s afraid to reach an agreement like we usually do in these circumstances, because he will be attacked by his progressive and radical base,” Cornyn said of Schumer.
Schumer was part of the “Gang of Eight” who helped pass a bipartisan immigration reform bill in the Senate in 2013.
Hawley said Democrats were comfortable maintaining the impasse.
“I just think people seem pretty content, especially Democrats, to keep the government shut down,” he said.
Democrats have a reason to feel safe, at least for now: Several polls show that more Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown.
The latest CNBC All-America economic survey found that 53% of respondents would blame Trump, congressional Republicans or both if the shutdown caused significant economic harm, compared to 37% who would blame Democrats.
The survey, conducted among 1,000 adults across the country from October 8 to 12, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.
