Photo: Alamy
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused congressional Democrats on Tuesday of putting “illegal aliens over American citizens” as lawmakers failed to pass a funding bill to prevent a government shutdown.
In a series of social media posts, Leavitt charged Democrats with intentionally steering the government toward closure rather than accepting President Donald Trump’s refusal to provide taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants.
“Democrats are shutting down the federal government because President [Donald] Trump won’t force taxpayers to pay for free healthcare for illegal aliens,” Leavitt wrote. “Just think about that… Democrat elected representatives are punishing their own constituents to fight for illegals. Deranged.”
In a follow-up post, she again argued Democrats were holding out to protect health benefits for noncitizens.
“Democrats just voted to shut down the government — but with multiple of them voting with Republicans to keep government open, Democrats are crumbling before the shutdown even begins,” Leavitt posted.
The White House’s official account joined in, writing, “Senate Democrats just voted to send the government into a shutdown. DEMOCRAT SHUTDOWN LOADING.”
Senate Republicans also joined in on X: “Once again, Senate Democrats blocked our clean, bipartisan funding bill to keep the government open. They’d rather give illegal aliens free healthcare and send your tax dollars to foreign countries for woke projects than fund the government.’
Vice President JD Vance spoke out on the shutdown on CBS, stating, “We’re in this position because Senate Democrats decided that they were going to shut down the government despite the fact that the House voted to keep the government open. There are critical, essential services… that are going to suffer because of this.”
The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on legislation to end the federal government shutdown, Sen. John Thune said, expressing confidence that more Democratic support could help push the measure through.
“We picked up three tonight when we voted on this,” Thune, R-S.D., said in a television interview Tuesday. “Eventually, we’ll get enough to pass this thing in the Senate and keep the government open.”
