Mike Johnson claims ‘big-hearted’ president wants to reopen government; FBI fires official amid Patel’s outrage over stories about jet use – key US politics stories from Sunday 2 November
Republicans are insisting that Donald Trump is “desperate” to end the government shutdown, which has now entered its 33rd day.
The comments by the Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, come as the US president delays food assistance funding for millions of low-income Americans but steams ahead with construction of his $300m gilded White House ballroom.
Johnson presented Trump as a man angry and desperate to break the impasse so as to ease mounting pain for ordinary Americans. “He’s just desperate for the government to open, he’s tried everything he can,” Johnson said, adding that Trump was a “big-hearted president, he wants everybody to get their services”.
Yet Trump continues to exert an iron grip on the shutdown, resisting political and even federal court pressure to ease the burden on vulnerable Americans while protesting that he has no power to end the impasse.
