An 'unserious' meeting set the stage for shutdown

Halfway through President Trump's inaugural White House meeting this term with congressional leadership days before a government shutdown, the red hats appeared on the president's desk.

- BY LISA MASCARO

"IT WAS THEATRICS." House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said of last week's Oval Office meeting.

(MANUEL BALCE CENETA Associated Press)

“Trump 2028,” they said, situated across from the seated lawmakers, Vice President JD Vance and several untouched Diet Cokes.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries leaned over to Vance, a potential 2028 contender, and quipped, “Hey, bro, you got a problem with this?”

The room chuckled in response.

“It was the random-most thing in the world, because we're sitting there, we're having a serious conversation, and all of a sudden these two red hats appear,” Jeffries recalled later at the Capitol.

“It was all so unserious,” the New York Democrat said, describing a roving cameraman capturing the moment. “We were there for serious reasons that it wasn't really a big part of, you know, the discussion. It was theatrics.”

The moment was vintage Trump — grabbing the attention and seeking to throw negotiators off their game — but it also underscored the president’s disregard for Congress, a coequal branch of the government, and in particular his opponents across the political aisle.

Nearly a week later, Republican and Democratic lawmakers remained at an impasse on reopening the federal government, and they provided few public signs Sunday of meaningful negotiations talking place to end what has so far been a five-day shutdown.

What was once considered a historic occasion — the president of the United States convening his first “big four” meeting of congressional leaders from the House and Senate — was reduced to another viral souvenir of Trump trolling his opponent.

And after the more than hourlong session, the president failed to strike a deal with the leaders to prevent a federal government closure.