U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Monday, as the federal government edges towards a shutdown with funding set to expire on Tuesday night, multiple sources confirmed.
CNN reported House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are all expected to attend the high-stakes meeting, convened as lawmakers remain deeply divided over spending priorities.
The rare, eleventh-hour gathering follows a week of strained negotiations. Trump had earlier cancelled a planned session with Schumer and Jeffries, accusing Democrats of making “unserious and ridiculous demands” and insisting that any meeting without compromise would be “unproductive.”
The decision to exclude Democrats came after Trump spoke privately by phone with Johnson and Thune, both Republicans, who reportedly advised against striking a deal with Democratic leaders. Monday’s meeting, however, will bring all four congressional heads to the negotiating table.
Democratic leaders, who have expressed willingness to negotiate, said in a joint statement on Saturday: “As we have repeatedly said, Democrats will meet anywhere, at any time and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending agreement that meets the needs of the American people.”
Senator Schumer, who spoke directly with Thune on Friday to press for the meeting, has insisted that any short-term funding deal must include an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, among other priorities.
Republicans, meanwhile, are pushing for a seven-week funding extension that includes increased security funding across the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
While Republicans currently hold both Congress and the White House, they will need the support of at least seven Democratic senators to move any funding measure through the upper chamber under Senate rules.
If no agreement is reached by Tuesday night, the resulting shutdown could unfold quite differently from previous ones. The White House has indicated that it may instruct federal agencies to scale back operations in areas no longer aligned with the administration’s agenda.
President Trump, who is no stranger to such showdowns, presided over the longest government shutdown in US history during his first term. That 35-day closure, which began in December 2018, disrupted services nationwide and cost billions in lost productivity. - September 28, 2025
