President Trump is losing trust in negotiations with Senate Democratic leaders after they repeatedly mischaracterized talks on the government shutdown and immigration, said a top White House adviser.
Marc Short, the president’s director of legislative affairs, said the president’s trust in negotiation with the top Senate Democrats appeared to be “deteriorating.”
Senate Democrats also have charged that Mr. Trump is not a reliable negotiating partner.
The growing distrust further complicates negotiations to end a government shutdown that extended into a third day Monday.
The Senate is set to vote a noon on a stopgap bill to reopen the government and fund it until Feb. 8 while negotiations on immigration and other hot-button issues continue.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrats, both emerged from separate private meetings with the Mr. Trump to disclose details aimed at embarrassing or discrediting the president.
Mr. Durbin claimed the president said the U.S. didn’t need more immigrants from “s—-thole counties” such as Haiti and El Salvador, prompting charges that Mr. Trump is a racist.
Mr. Schumer blamed Mr. Trump for the shutdown by saying he refused an offer to fully meet his demand for border wall funding in exchange for amnesty for illegal immigrant Dreamers.
“Negotiating with this White House is like negotiating with Jell-O,” Mr. Schumer said.
The White House rejected the stories from both Democrat leaders.
The federal government shut down after Senate Democrats led a filibuster to kill a stopgap spending bill that would have funded the government for four weeks and extended the life of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years.
They objected to the lack of a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) fix to grant amnesty to so-called Dreamers, illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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