The government closure display sees the GOP divided on the messaging strategy

High Republican officials seem to be in contradiction with each other on how to represent the benefits of the current government closed.

The Democrats of the Senate still refuse to move their requests so that Obamacare’s grant extensions are included in a short -term federal financing bill, it is therefore likely that the government will remain closed at least until next week.

He gave President Donald Trump and the management and budget office (OMB) at large discretion on what agencies and project operations will look like, as well as the federal workforce.

President Mike Johnson, R-La., Sought to represent these decisions as difficult tasks for Trump and the director of the Russian OMB Vought, in particular the administration’s push to permanently dismiss federal workers, the longer the closure is.

Here is what Trump wants to reshape the federal government during the closure

President Mike Johnson, on the left, and President Donald Trump, on the right, adopted different approaches to portray the federal cuts in the middle of the current government. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, included via Getty Images; Francis Chung / Politico / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Johnson told Fox News Digital in an interview earlier this week that Trump was “very disturbed” by the position that the Democrats put on government and is concerned about its lasting impact on Americans.

He also told the Fox Business Larry Kudlow host Thursday that Vought was in a “unnatiable” position, and although there could be “could be a good that comes out, if we limit the size and scope of the government” that “it is not a job that he savor”.

And while Trump blamed the Democrats for the impact of closing the Americans, he has set a different tone when he has discussed his political benefits in recent days.

Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday that he would meet Vought “to determine which of the many democratic agencies, most of which are a political scam, he recommends being cut”.

“I cannot believe that the radical democrats on the left gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” continued Trump. “They are not stupid people, so maybe it’s their way of wanting, quietly and quickly, making America again great!”

Johnson also gave a categorical vought defense during the call only of the Républicains of the House with the director of the OMB on Wednesday, said Fox News Digital.

The speaker threw imminent federal layoffs as a difficult position for Vought to be, and the one in which the Democrats have placed it by refusing the GOP financing plan.

“Russ is not the Grim Reaper,” said Johnson, said Fox News Digital.

Russell Vought, director of the management and budget office, met President Donald Trump on October 2, 2025, to discuss government discounts under closure. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

Thursday evening, however, Trump shared a video generated by Ai-Ai on Truth Social with Vought as a character from Grim Reaper against a parodic version of Blue Oyster Cult’s song.

The video has shown that Vought was walking in a desk full of workers and through a portrait room featuring the best Democrats, notably the head of the Minority of the Senate Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and the chief of the Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y.

“Russ Vought is Reaper. He exercises the pen, funds and the brain,” sings the voiceover. “Dems, you babies, here is the reaper.”

Johnson approached the various signals at a press conference on Friday, telling journalists that Trump does not take “great pleasure” in the disturbances of the closure but “drags democrats”, because “that’s what President Trump does”.

When these two points were asked, Johnson said that mockery was exclusively intended for Democrats.

“The effects are very serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do an excellent job in all these different fields. But what they have, trying to have the light is to report the absurdity of the position of the Democrats,” said Johnson.

Government closed the GOP plan to penalize legislators with a new wage tax

“They use memes and all the tools of social media to do so. Some people find it entertaining. But in the end, the decisions are difficult. And I tell you, they do not enjoy this.”

Meanwhile, the White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said there was no daylight between Trump and the positions of the Congress Republicans.

“President Trump and the Congress Republicans are all on the same wavelength: the Democrats hurt the American people and close the government because they want to give free health care to illegal foreigners,” Jackson said.

“We want the government to reopen with a clean CR which has already received bipartite support. Any funding period, this caused by Democrats, has consequences. Democrats can reopen the government at any time.”

Although Trump’s messaging may seem to undermine that of the leaders of the GOP in the Chamber, it could also be a strategy to tighten the Democrats on two distinct planes while they continue to resist the Federal funding strategy of the Republicans.

The leader of the minority of the room, Hakeem Jeffries, on the left, speaks to the media next to the head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, the president of the day, Donald Trump, met the best leaders of the Congress of the two parties in Washington, DC, on September 29, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

Click here to obtain the Fox News app

Republicans push a relatively stable extension of the fiscal fiscal year (Exc) 2025 the federal financing levels until November 21 in order to give legislators more time to compensate for a longer -term agreement for the year 2026.

They stressed that this is a measure similar to what the Democrats approved 13 times among former President Joe Biden.

But the Democrats, furious by being sidelined in federal funding discussions, do not retain support unless the Republicans include the language extending subsidies to Obamacare which was temporarily improved during the COVVI-19 pandemic.

The Republican leaders have reported the opening to the discussion of credits, which expire at the end of 2025 without action of the congress, but declared that these talks are better separated from federal funding.