Trump, Schumer have White House meeting

HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — President Donald Trump met with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in the White House on Thursday.

The politicians talked about the administration’s immigration law enforcement and healthcare legislation, Schumer’s office reportedly said. The White House didn’t answer The National News Desk’s questions on the subjects of the meeting.

The senator told Trump that ICE has been dangerous and has threatened people around the country, his office told Politico. He urged the president to restrict the agency’s presence in cities.

Schumer also asked Trump to push Senate Republicans to support a House bill on healthcare subsidies. Seventeen House Republicans joined all Democrats last week to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years.

Trump called the meeting to talk about a New York-New Jersey tunnel project that he pulled support from last year, when the government shut down. The president announced that it was terminated along with “tremendous numbers of Democrat projects” as Republicans and Democrats negotiated government funding.

“I mean, the project in Manhattan, the project in New York, it’s billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get,” Trump said approvingly. “It’s terminated. Tell him it’s terminated.”

The two, despite having worked to reopen the government, have vilified each other and their parties since. Trump called for the death of six other Democratic senators in November who he claimed were seditious, while Schumer has routinely characterized the president and Republican lawmakers as cruel and unresponsive to the public’s needs.

The Democratic leader said Thursday his party was ready to work on economic issues that Republicans have exacerbated.

“Costs, the high cost of living, the affordability crisis, will be our focus throughout 2026, because that’s what the American people are demanding,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

“And we will show how the Trump administration and Republicans have made costs even worse and what Democrats will do, when we get power, to reduce those costs in a very significant way that will affect every single American.”

On Wednesday, Trump called “affordability” a “fake” word created by Democrats.

“They caused the high price. They never wanna talk about affordability,” the president said. “They always go, ‘this is an election about affordability.’ I said, ‘they caused it.’”

“But they’re good at that stuff. They’re good at that stuff. They’re fake and they’re good at that stuff,” Trump added. “It’s an election about high prices that was caused by the Democrats and that I brought down a lot.”

Have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at rjlewis@sbgtv.com.