Trump Was Poised To Have A Bad Week. Enter Democrats.

President Donald Trump’s week was poised to be bruising.

Instead, the president is ending it on a political high after he and congressional Republicans closed ranks and, with an assist from the looming specter of DOGE, cornered Democrats into voting to avert a government shutdown on their terms. Now, it’s Democrats who are fighting each other, distracting Washington, at least temporarily, from Trump’s trade war that has wreaked havoc on the stock market.

It’s a sign of just how different this Trump is from the one who left office four years ago. Not only is Trump firmly the leader of a GOP he has remade in his image — borne out Tuesday when many hardline members of the House Freedom Caucus voted for their first ever stopgap spending bill. But his mercurial governing style drove a wedge between Democrats, some of whom feared they would play into the president’s hands if they voted to shut the government down.

“I don't know who the leader of the Democratic Party is, but I know who runs it. It's Donald Trump,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist and vocal Trump defender who was at one time considered for the White House press secretary post.

It’s a sharp contrast from Trump’s first term, when he faced a united Democratic front while his own party was often splintered. Trump, new to public office, would often rage at his inability to navigate the internal politics.

The funding deal, on a glidepath as of Friday afternoon, was sealed two weeks ago when Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune met with Trump at the White House and got him onboard with the measure, according to four people familiar with the meeting granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation. Trump not only agreed to back the funding extension during that Feb. 26 meeting, he also agreed to try to force rank-and-file Republicans to fall in line behind it and post a decree on Truth Social.

Hours later, Trump’s post appeared, and Johnson and Trump officials went to work flipping dozens of hard-liners who’ve long opposed funding the government with short-term measures. A week later at the White House, Trump pressed a group of remaining hard-liners to vote yes — arguing his administration would continue using Elon Musk’s DOGE and the arcane budget impoundment act to cut spending. (The administration’s case relies on clawing back money Congress approved, a legally fraught strategy that strips lawmakers of their own power.)

It underscores the political muscle Trump may have to use to get his party on board in the future and may offer a preview of the reconciliation and funding fights to come. But it also demonstrates how few avenues divided Democrats have to oppose the president and his agenda.

The GOP’s successful shutdown aversion, expected late Friday, comes as a welcome distraction for the administration amid growing concerns over other parts of the president’s agenda. A CNN-SSRS poll released this week found that 55 percent of Americans believe the president’s efforts to slash the federal bureaucracy will do economic harm, while 51 percent said they think Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index also dropped for the third time this month, to the lowest level since 2022, even though it was reported this week that February saw inflation slow more than expected.

And though stocks rose Friday as the shutdown threat receded, it was still a rough week for the markets, with the S&P 500 on Thursday entering into correction territory — a 10 percent drop from its all-time high. Markets spooked Monday in response to the president’s unwillingness to rule out a recession, and remained tetchy throughout the week amid on-again-off-again tariff threats between the U.S. and Canada and after 25 percent levies on steel and aluminum took effect Wednesday.

Those fears were shunted to the side Friday as Trump took a victory lap on social media, his praise pouring salt on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s wounds as the Senate’s top Democrat suffered a public lashing from his own party.

“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Took ‘guts’ and courage!”

Schumer’s decision to back down left House Democrats fuming, reflective of a broader divide within the party over when and how to challenge the president and his agenda amid growing recognition within their ranks that there is something about MAGA that Americans find attractive. It persuaded some progressives to immediately call on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to primary Schumer. By Friday afternoon, Schumer had secured the support of enough Senate Democrats to likely advance the funding measure.

Republicans were on the losing end of spending fights during Trump’s first term. After a highly unpopular 35-day partial shutdown in 2019, the president ultimately caved by signing legislation providing $1.375 billion in border wall funding, far shy of the $5.7 billion he initially demanded.

But some Senate Democrats — including Schumer — argued that this was an unprecedented shutdown that could hand the keys to the kingdom to Trump, Musk and their federal government-slashing efforts. Even though some former Trump administration officials said Thursday they thought it was unlikely that the federal government would furlough workers and never call them back, they couldn’t rule it out.

The president’s budget office has wide latitude during a federal funding lapse, raising fears among Democrats that Trump budget director Russ Vought might work hand-in-glove with Musk to further advance the DOGE mission. It demonstrates the effectiveness of the psychological warfare the administration has been waging in its efforts to dismantle the federal government.

Even as they reveled in the expected Friday victory, Trump allies acknowledged that the president’s biggest fights are ahead, including wrangling a massive funding bill needed to accomplish Trump’s tax and immigration priorities. Indeed, Johnson and Thune convinced Trump that a shutdown would be catastrophic to their legislative agenda and that passing the stopgap funding was the only way to clear the runaway for the larger reconciliation bill he wants.

“Trump learned from his first term that personnel really is policy,” said Scott Reed, a veteran GOP strategist. “And his new team has cemented Trump as the leader of the GOP.”