Donald Trump Says He Can 'Relate' To Federal Workers Who Can't Pay Bills During Shutdown
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Donald Trump Says He Can 'Relate' To Federal Workers Who Can't Pay Bills During Shutdown
Hayley Miller, HuffPost Sun, Jan 6 12:02 PM EST President Donald Trump , one of the richest men in America , wants you to believe he can empathize with federal employees who are struggling to make ends meet as the partial government shutdown heads into a third week.
The shutdown, already one of the longest in U.S. history, has left an estimated 800,000 federal workers either furloughed or, if deemed essential, working without pay.
“Mr. President, can you relate to the pain of federal workers who can’t pay their bills?” a reporter asked Trump outside the White House on Sunday.
“I can relate,” the president responded. “And I’m sure that the people that are toward the receiving end will make adjustments, they always do. And they’ll make adjustments. People understand exactly what’s going on.”
“Many of those people that won’t be receiving a paycheck, many of those people agree 100 percent with what I’m doing,” he added, without evidence.
This iframe is not allowedThough these workers will likely receive back pay after the government reopens, some are struggling to pay rent or buy groceries. What’s more, government contractors may never see retroactive pay.
“Most of us live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to be unpaid and still go to work for long. It is not fair,” a Transportation Security Administration official told HuffPost .
Pay scheduled to go out next Friday will be delayed if an agreement is not reached by midnight on Tuesday, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday.
The president has threatened to continue the standoff for “months or even years” if Democrats don’t agree to include $5 billion for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall in a spending bill to fund government agencies impacted by the shutdown. Democrats have steadfastly rejected Trump’s demand to fund the border wall, which he has vowed Mexico would pay to build since the 2016 campaign.
Trump’s claim that he can “relate” to financially strapped federal workers may be hard to swallow by some. Though he has claimed he didn’t inherit his wealth, a New York Times investigation in October revealed he benefited greatly from his father’s real estate fortune.
“By age 3, he was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. In his 40s and 50s, he was receiving more than $5 million a year,” the Times wrote.
The president’s net worth is an estimated $3.1 billion, Forbes reported in October.
HuffPost readers: Are you affected by the government shutdown? Email us about it . If you’re willing to be interviewed, please provide a phone number.
- This article originally appeared on HuffPost .
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How is that turd? Because you never pay your bills? Stiff your contractors?
Seriously Trump cannot relate to "workers" of any kind. He hasn't worked a real day in his life, daddy made sure about that.
We can all relate to the frustration of Chuck and Nancy keeping the govt shut down.
trmp owns this shutdown, he said he did
Trump owns fighting for a secure border. Democrats own being obstinate over a relatively small amount of money just to keep their far left base happy.
Yawn. Let me know when he decides to tackle a real problem.
I'd rather that small amount of money be spent on infrastructure repairs and improvements.
They passed the exact same bills as the GOP Senate. They voted to keep the govt fully functional, it fat fuck who decided to throw a hissy fit after people on TV called him a pussy. Besides, Trump said he owns this thing and is happy to do it. Can't blame anyone else.
This guy can't relate to anything. Wealthier people have rejected him as an idiot for decades, he's already shown women and minorities what he's about. Now he's trying to pawn off empathy for the working stiff?
Resignation day can't happen soon enough!
Just how is that he thinks he can relate to we peons?
He can relate to them about as well as I can relate to being a gay black slave in 1850 (wealthy white heterosexual male here).