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Democrats who backed a deal to reopen the US government faced a backlash from their party as Donald Trump looked to resolve a federal shutdown that was sinking his poll numbers and hurting the economy.
The pact reached in the Senate on Sunday night came after Republicans and Democrats faced pressure to end the longest-ever shutdown, which was being acutely felt around the country.
The agreement, which was passed by the upper chamber of Congress on Monday night by a vote of 60 to 40, delivered a fresh jolt to the US political landscape, less than a week after Democrats notched strong victories in key governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey, and the mayoral race in New York City.
“No one can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like the Democrats,” wrote Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director under Barack Obama, in a blog post on Monday.
The seven Democratic senators who defected to advance the deal said they had secured a commitment from Republican Senate leaders to hold a vote on extending healthcare subsidies that will otherwise expire this year. They also secured concessions from Republicans limiting the firing of federal workers.
But other Democrats also condemned what they said was a surrender to Trump because it failed to achieve a firm agreement to extend healthcare subsidies, an issue that helped them achieve victory in last week’s elections.
“This ‘deal’ dramatically hikes healthcare premiums and only exacerbates the affordability crisis. It should be rejected, as should any politics willing to compromise on the basic needs of working people,” Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, wrote on X.
But the initial agreement triggered a rally in equity markets on Monday. After its worst week in a month, the S&P 500 rebounded 1.5 per cent, led by tech shares, as traders piled into riskier assets. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 2.3 per cent. Treasury bonds and the dollar index, traditional safe-haven assets, dipped.
The shutdown has been a sobering experience for many Republicans and for Trump, who has seen his polling numbers drop and the economy weaken since the longest federal closure in US history began on October 1.
According to the polling average at Realclearpolitics.com, 45 per cent of Americans approved of Trump’s performance when the shutdown began on October 1, while 53 per cent disapproved. But by Monday an 8-point approval gap had widened to 11 points, with 54 per cent disapproving of the president.
The US president has moved quickly to change the narrative, with new populist messages
On Monday he doubled down on a pledge to give $2,000 payments “to low and middle income USA Citizens, from the massive Tariff Income pouring into our Country” in a social media post.
The deal to reopen the government could still falter. After passage in the Senate, the agreement still needs to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where there is little margin for error, before it reaches Trump’s desk for his final approval.
House Republicans seem poised to embrace the deal. Mike Johnson, the House speaker, said he expected to call lawmakers back to Washington for a vote on the plan later this week. “We have to do this as quickly as possible,” he told reporters on Monday. “This has gone on too long, too many people have suffered,” he added.
“The government is reopening after 40-plus days, something that never should have happened. And I think, frankly, even some Democrats recognise that this has been an unmitigated disaster,” Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, told CNN on Monday.
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