Contrast the White House Loves: Trump Gets Gaza Deal as Dems Continue Shutdown

As members of the cabinet met at the White House to celebrate the beginning of the end of the war in Gaza, a product of the peace deal that Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised as “a historic moment in the history of our country,” the Senate prepared to vote.

It was the seventh vote to reopen the federal government, and it failed, 54-45, along the same predictable lines as all the other attempts before it. All but three Democrats voted against the measure. Every Republican, except Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, supported it.

Gridlock endures, and now, a split-screen that the White House favors has emerged: President Trump rallied the international community, including bitter enemies, to bring an end to a two-year war, but Democrats will not bring the shutdown to a close.

“While we’re all celebrating this incredible success that we’ve had on the world stage,” said Vice President JD Vance, “the country could be doing so much better if Chuck Schumer did his job and opened the government.”

Democrats have refused to turn the lights back on until Republicans extend Obamacare subsidies, something the White House has expressed a willingness to negotiate over, but only after the shutdown ends. “Every day gets better for us,” Senate Minority Leader Schumer said Wednesday in an interview with Punchbowl News before the shutdown dragged into its ninth day.

“It’s because we’ve thought about this long in advance, and we knew that health care would be the focal point on Sept. 30,” he added, “and we prepared for it.”

That focal point has since been obscured by the prospect of a generational peace agreement. Wednesday evening, during a roundtable at the White House on an unrelated topic, Rubio slid a written note to Trump in full view of the press. Negotiations were “very close,” the note read, and “we need you to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”

The president announced hours later on that social media platform that Israel and Hamas had agreed to “the first phase of our peace plan.” Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire as negotiations continue and the release of hostages. And for his part, Trump plans to travel to Egypt for an in-person signing ceremony on Sunday and later for an address at the Israeli Knesset. A breakthrough on the shutdown stateside is not expected while the president is away for what he described as “a great day of celebration.”

Hamas began the war with a terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians. The subsequent Israeli military campaign has reduced Gaza to rubble and killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, a number that includes both civilians and combatants, according to the Hamas-aligned Gaza Health Ministry.

The prospect of ending that bloody toll earned Trump rare praise from Democrats, including former President Barack Obama.

“After two years of unimaginable loss and suffering for Israeli families and the people of Gaza,” Obama wrote in a statement, “we should all be encouraged and relieved that an end to the conflict is within sight; that those hostages still being held will be reunited with their families; and that vital aid can start reaching those inside Gaza whose lives have been shattered.”

Regular partisan programming continues on Capitol Hill, albeit with an ongoing role-reversal. Republicans, who once used shutdowns as a negotiation, now condemn Democrats, who once rejected shutdown as irresponsible.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune accused the opposition of being ambivalent over whether US servicemembers go without pay and government programs, like nutrition programs for the poor, remain inaccessible. “This isn’t a political game. Democrats might feel that way, but I don’t know of anybody else that does,” the South Dakota Republican said on the Senate floor. “The longer this goes on, the more the American people realize that Democrats own this shutdown.”

Schumer did celebrate the prospect of peace in the Middle East even as his party refuses to budge. “This brings a huge sigh of relief to the hostage families, to all of Israel, and to Palestinians who have suffered for so long in this horrific humanitarian catastrophe,” he wrote in a statement.

The White House, in the meantime, will continue to bask in what they see as a winning contrast.

“While President Trump is ending a war, ushering in global peace, and delivering on a host of other promises that make America and the world safer, Democrats can’t even end their self-imposed government shutdown over free health care for illegal aliens,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told RealClearPolitics. “The contrast could not be clearer: President Trump delivers while Democrats flail – and harm the American people in the process.”

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.