‘Trump Is FAR Weaker Than He Looks’: AOC Says GOP Shutdown Plan Already ‘Backfiring’
In the face of a potential government shutdown, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is urging her Democratic colleagues to resist President Donald Trump. She argued that protecting the American people is too critical a responsibility to abandon before negotiations have even seriously begun.
The central point of contention is healthcare. Democrats are refusing to support a Republican funding bill unless it includes an extension for Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are scheduled to expire.
Ocasio-Cortez asserted that both Trump and the Republican party are politically vulnerable, despite their powerful appearance. She believes they rely on a perception of invincibility to force opponents to concede in advance.
She pointed to record-low approval ratings for Trump and the Republican House as evidence of their weakness. This unpopularity, she suggested, is causing them to make strategic missteps that are backfiring.
The congresswoman emphasized that Democrats must stand firm in this moment. She stated they have a vital opportunity to defend healthcare coverage for millions of citizens and should not back down.
Ocasio-Cortez also dismissed Trump’s threat to fire federal workers during a shutdown. She characterized this as a “bluffing game” of holding the entire federal workforce hostage.
She noted that the administration had already been actively reducing the federal workforce through other initiatives. Therefore, she implied his shutdown threat was an extension of a pre-existing agenda rather than a new, credible bargaining position.
