ANALYSIS — President Donald Trump hosted a potentially term-changing meeting Friday at the White House. No, it wasn’t about ending the longest government shutdown in American history.
Trump did not extend invitations to Republican and Democratic lawmakers to try using the power of his office to reopen the government — even as some Americans missed paychecks, scrambled due to delayed benefits or seethed over canceled flights. Instead, he hosted one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who came eager to broker a meeting between the two superpower leaders that he might host, aimed at ending Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Pressed Friday on whether he would pursue a deal with Democrats to end the government shutdown, Trump seemed open to it, after mostly slamming the minority party for months. But he still said Democrats were “very destructive for the country.”
