One week into the government shutdown, top Republican leaders appear to have lost the plot.
President Donald Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are straining to project a united front against Democrats, just barely concealing tensions over strategy that have snowballed behind the scenes since agencies closed last week.
In one stark example, Trump scrambled the congressional leaders’ messaging Monday when he told reporters in the Oval Office he would “like to see a deal made for great health care” and that he was “talking to Democrats about it.”
Within hours, Trump walked it back: “I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open,” he wrote on Truth Social hours after his initial comments.
Johnson said Tuesday he “spoke with the president at length yesterday” about the need to reopen agencies first, while Thune told reporters there have been “ongoing conversations” about strategy between the top Republicans.
A White House official granted anonymity to speak about the circumstances behind the president’s statements said the Truth post was “issued to make clear that the [administration] position has not changed” and was not done at the behest of the two leaders.
But tensions surfaced again Tuesday after a White House budget office memo raised questions about a federal law guaranteeing back pay for furloughed federal workers — one that Johnson and Thune both voted for in 2019.
These episodes are among many where the White House and Hill Republicans have been crosswise on strategy and seemingly not communicating in advance about their key moves. Many of those instances have concerned hardball tactics coming from White House budget director Russ Vought seemingly aimed at cornering Democrats by threatening blue-state spending and the federal workforce.
Not only have those moves so far failed to move Democrats off their positions, they have left Johnson and Thune flat-footed as they confront questions about the GOP strategy for ending the shutdown.
The two leaders, for instance, both struggled to square their own support for federal workers with the administration’s new position questioning back pay for furloughed employees. Thune sought to return focus to Democrats while also indicating frustration with the White House.
“All you have to do to prevent any federal employee from not getting paid is to open up the government,” Thune told reporters Tuesday. “I don’t know what statute they are using. My understanding is, yes, that they would get paid. I’ll find out. I haven’t heard this up until now. But again it’s a very straightforward proposition, and you guys keep chasing that narrative that they’ve got going down at the White House and up here with the Democrats.”
Johnson separately said he supported back pay and praised the “extraordinary Americans who serve the federal government.”
“They serve valiantly, and they work hard, and they serve in these various agencies, doing really important work,” he said. “I tell you, the president believes that as well.”
Barely two hours later, Trump sent a different message: “I would say it depends who we’re talking about,” he told reporters when asked about guaranteeing back pay. “For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people, but for some people they don’t deserve to be taken care of.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement that Trump and congressional Republicans “are all in complete lockstep and have been consistent” in saying the government must reopen before health care or any policy issues can be discussed.
“The Administration will not negotiate while the American people are being held hostage by Democrats,” she added.
As far as congressional Republicans are concerned, the politics of government shutdowns is straightforward: Isolate the Senate Democrats who are blocking a House-passed bill to reopen the government and make them own the consequences of having agencies shuttered.
“If you’re Republicans, you have to get Dems to blink first,” said a person close to the White House who was granted anonymity to describe strategic conversations.
But Trump and Vought have not followed that strategy, seemingly preoccupied with punishing their political enemies and executing an ideological agenda targeting the federal workforce and programs.
Most of the strategic tensions have pitted Johnson and Thune against the White House — but not all.
The two congressional leaders appeared together at a news conference Tuesday where they were pressed on the possibility of standalone legislation guaranteeing pay for military members or air traffic controllers.
“I’m certainly open to that,” Johnson said, before Thune — seemingly wary of taking pressure off Democrats — poured cold water on the idea.
“You don’t need that,” he interjected. “The simplest way to end it is not try to exempt this group or that group or that group. It’s to get the government open.”
In contrast to the GOP divisions, Democrats have been largely successful so far in their effort to focus attention on health care — in particular, on Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies that expire at the end of the year. They are pushing Republicans to engage now while Johnson and Thune insist the problem can be dealt with later, after the government reopens.
And they have noticed the disarray on the other side of the aisle. “I think they are absolutely struggling to figure out how they are going to get out of this,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Tuesday.
The White House official said Republicans remain confident they will ultimately prevail, saying Democrats “have no viable alternative” to the House stopgap and that “it’s the party that is asking for stuff that is going to be blamed.”
But behind the scenes, the top Republican leaders agree that the subsidies have to be extended going into a midterm election year. The person close to the White House said “2026 can’t be about health care” for the GOP.
Johnson and Thune know the issue unites Democrats but divides their members and are trying to keep a lid on those internal tensions. They haven’t been especially successful. Many hard-line conservatives have staked out total opposition to any extension, while swing-district members have sketched out proposals to keep premiums from skyrocketing.
The split was underscored Monday night when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a Trump loyalist with a maverick streak, took direct aim at party leaders for not addressing the looming deadline.
“Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!” Greene wrote on X.
Johnson responded Tuesday by saying Greene simply wasn’t in the loop as other Republicans discuss a path forward.
“She’s probably not read that in on some of that, because it’s still been sort of in the silos of the people who specialize in those issues,” Johnson said.
But the open rebellion — and Trump’s public signals that he’s willing to deal — is only fueling Democrats’ willingness to hold out on government funding. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer quoted from Greene’s post on the Senate floor Tuesday.
“Hold on to your hats: I think this is the first time I’ve said this, but on this issue, Rep. Greene said it perfectly,” he said. “Rep. Greene is absolutely right.”
Some progress has been made behind the scenes toward at least establishing lines of bipartisan communication. Some rank-and-file senators are already discussing potential shutdown off-ramps involving the ACA subsidies and unfinished fiscal 2026 appropriations bills.
The person close to the White House said the administration has informally deputized Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to serve as a conduit to Democrats. Asked about the arrangement, Mullin said, “I don’t have a badge,” and otherwise declined to discuss whether he was briefing the administration on bipartisan Senate talks.
As those discussions play out, the top leaders have been left to paper over their internal disputes with words of praise and harmony.
After Trump sent his clean-up Truth, Johnson praised the president for making “very clear that, yes, he’s happy to sit down and talk to Democrats about health care or anything as soon as they reopen the government.”
“We are 100 percent consistent and united on that,” he said. “The president is a dealmaker. He likes to figure these things out and work towards solutions, and that’s why he’s a bold, strong leader that America needs right now.”
Sophia Cai, Mia McCarthy, Jennifer Scholtes and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
