US President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have been involved in a bitter and very public feud for years now. Their war of words began in 2016, and the two never shy away from publicly slamming each other at every possible opportunity.
Chuck Schumer knows a thing or two about handling controversy. Just this year, he delayed the appointment of nominees chosen by Trump, which gave rise to more tensions between the two politicians. Trump retorted to Schumer by posting three words on Truth Social: “GO TO HELL!”
For a large chunk of this year, the Senate minority leader and the US President have exchanged public recriminations. In August this year, Chuck Schumer responded after Trump told him to “go to hell” in a social post and said, “In a fit of rage, Trump threw in the towel, sent Republicans home, and was unable to do the basic work of negotiating. Is this the art of the deal? Posture, cajole, stamp your feet, and then give up?”
Schumer, straight up, shared the reason for delaying the appointment of the nominees, calling them “historically unqualified.” At a press briefing, the leader showcased a poster with a colossal screenshot of Donald Trump’s Truth Social message printed on it, adding that Trump “tried to bully us”.
Earlier this month, Trump refused to meet with Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to decide on the budget bill. Trump labelled Schumer’s demands as “ridiculous.” The demands in question were to review and tweak some of the changes to immigrants’ access to Medicaid earlier this year.
The to-and-fro continued as the Senate Minority Leader spoke to the press stationed outside his Brooklyn home and told them, “Donald Trump can’t even negotiate a budget bill with the Democrats. This great negotiator.”
Not too long ago, Schumer described Trump as a “real threat” to democracy and that he is on “the path to a dictatorship.” The Senator’s statement came soon after Donald Trump demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi take action against his opponents.
“What Trump is doing is he’s turning it. He’s firing anybody who doesn’t seem to be part of his acolytes, and he’s turning it into an instrument that goes after his enemies, whether they’re guilty or not — and most of them are not guilty at all — and that helps his friends,” Schumer said in a statement earlier this year.
“This is the path to a dictatorship. That’s what dictatorships do. It is so very, very frightening and damaging to our republic,” Schumer added.
Back in 2016, before the presidential elections, Trump appeared on Morning Joe, where he self-admittedly said that he was “close to” Chuck Schumer. “I think I’ll be able to get along well with Chuck Schumer. I was always very good with Schumer. I was close to Schumer in many ways,” said Donald Trump back in 2016.
However, much to Trump’s surprise, the same year, Schumer clarified in an interview with Politico that the two were not friends. “He was not my friend. We never went golfing together, even had a meal together,” he said, adding, “He’s called me, we’ve had civil conversations a couple of times. But I’ve got to see what he does.”
