Trump calls for a 'good shutdown' in September

President Donald Trump on Tuesday seemingly called for an end to the legislative filibuster in the Senate and suggested that a government shutdown in September might be “good” in order to accomplish his policy goals without interference from Democrats.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill managed to avoid the imminent threat of a government shutdown late last week and over the weekend, first passing a stop-gap one-week funding bill and then agreeing on a deal to fund the government through the end of September.

But while Republicans avoided a potentially embarrassing government shutdown just 100 days into Trump’s administration, the president’s agenda took a beating in the deal, with no money for his long-promised border wall and no crackdown on federal grant money for so-called “sanctuary cities.” Tuesday morning, Trump defended the compromise and laid out his suggestions to circumvent any need for future deal-making.

The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!”

Changing the Senate rules in order to allow legislation to pass with just a simple majority instead of the current 60-vote threshold would dramatically reduce the need for bipartisan compromise on Capitol Hill and represent a titanic shift in the U.S. political system.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who last month changed the Senate rules to block filibusters for Supreme Court nominations, has vowed he would not similarly undo the 60-vote threshold for legislation.