Trump cabinet blames protests for shutdown
By: Sarah D. Wire
USA today
..... Two of President Donald Trump's Cabinet secretaries said Democrats are keeping the government closed for the sake of "No Kings" mass protests scheduled for October 18. [2025]
.....
The comments made on the same Fox Business show on October 13, [2025] echoed congressional Republicans last week [10/10/2025] who blamed the two-week-long shutdown on Democrats, saying they wanted to keep the government closed until after the protests, hoping to show party activists they are pushing back on the Trump administration.
..... In criticizing the rallies, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "No Kinds' means no paychecks. No paychecks and no government."
..... Liberal groups have criticized elected Democrats for not doing enough in Congress to resist Trump;s changes to the federal government.
..... Senate Democrats are refusing to approve short-term funding measure for the federal government, demanding Republicans restore large cuts to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and Medicaid that will cost millions of people their health insurance.
..... No Kinds protests are scheduled at more than 2,500 location across the country, with one of several flagship protests planned outside the U.S. Capitol. Previous protests held by he same organizes over the last year [2024] including a June 14 [2025] rally also named No Kinds, have been peaceful and drawn massive crowds.
..... Rally organizers told USA Today they expect the crowds to joyfully, and peacefully celebrate their First Amendment right to protest. They've use the comments to draw more attention to their upcoming events.
..... Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox he expected millions of attendees will be :part of antifa, paid protesters. It Begs the question (of) who's funding it."
.....
Leash Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible, one of the groups organizing the protests, responded on social media: "this is what it looks like when you've fully lost control of the message and you're panicking."
.....
On October 10 [2025] several congressional Republicans referred to the protest as "hate America" rallies and accused Democrats of keeping the government closed at the request of activists.
..... House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said on Fox News that Republicans were hearing that Democrats wouldn't reopen the government until after the rallies because "they can;t face their rabid base."
..... The House remains in recess.
..... There has been nonpublic discussion of pans to have National Guard present at the washing protest or any others.
.....
In an October 10 [2025] statement, the coalition of activist groups putting on the protests, rallies and marches, stressed that organizers undergo security and deescalation training to avoid violence.
..... Hunter Dunn, a national spokesperson for the 50501 protest group, said he finds the Republican rhetoric funny.
..... "You kind f got to pick which lie you're going with. the enemy can't be simultaneously both weak and strong," he said.