President Donald Trump‘s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is unreservedly amplifying the partisan Republican position that the federal government shutdown should be blamed solely on Democrats, taking specific aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
On Wednesday, Hegseth wrote: “T-minus 7 days until @SenSchumer’s vanity shutdown means our great troops won’t get paid. SELFISH Schumer cares WAY MORE about his own reelection (he’s scared of Socialist @AOC) than he cares about the essential paycheck of our SELFLESS troops.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) responded to Hegseth: “Yo Kegseth — learn how to count. Republicans control the White House, Senate, and House. You don’t need a single Democratic vote to open government ***which includes the health insurance price hikes you all want. So pay the troops!”
Yo Kegseth — learn how to count. Republicans control the White House, Senate, and House. You don’t need a single Democratic vote to open government ***which includes the health insurance price hikes you all want.
So pay the troops! https://t.co/t7HyfZQWLy
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) October 8, 2025
[NOTE: Though the Republicans have the majorities in both the Senate and the House and control the executive branch, they need Democratic defectors in the Senate to reach the 60 vote threshold required to fund and open the government — or Republicans can choose to break the filibuster, as Swalwell has suggested, and use their slim majority to push through their agenda.]
If the shutdown persists and no standalone bill to pay military personnel is passed in the interim, troops may miss their Oct. 15 paychecks. Democrats have asked Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to bring the House back to vote to pay the troops, while Johnson insists that the opportunity to make sure troops are paid passed with the rejection of the Republican “clean” CR to open the government.