Trump refuses to negotiate with Schumer, calling him a ‘kamikaze pilot’ over government shutdown.
It’s been 35 days of Chuck Schumer’s TACO Tuesdays and the Schumer Shutdown follies. After five weeks of playing chicken with the federal budget, Donald Trump still hasn’t chickened out. And last night on 60 Minutes, Trump made it clear that he would not agree to negotiate on anything, even on ObamaCare subsidies in which he has some interest, until Democrats pass a clean CR and reopen government.
Trump told Norah O’Donnell that he has no intention of rewarding Schumer and his extortion methods. Rather than apply the ‘game of chicken’ analogy to Schumer’s strategy, Trump used his recent trip to Japan to come up with an even more insulting analogy:
President Trump: “I’m not going to do it by being extorted by the Democrats. There is something wrong with these people. Schumer is a basket case. He has nothing to lose. I just left Japan. He has become a kamikaze pilot.” ???? pic.twitter.com/X3qxUQgFwy— TheBlaze (@theblaze) November 3, 2025
The Associated Press cleaned up Trump’s actual remarks, removing the part about kamikaze pilots and basket cases. Nevertheless, the point gets across clearly enough. Trump loves to make deals, but he hates ultimatums, and he wants to make Schumer pay for this strategy:
President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Sunday that he “won’t be extorted” by Democrats who are demanding negotiations to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year for millions of Americans.
