With the federal government shutdown and Congress deadlocked over health care funding, President Donald Trump torched Democrats as “the party of hate, evil, and Satan” in a late-night barrage on Truth Social, complete with AI-generated memes and a collage of Democratic leaders. The outburst landed like gasoline on a Capitol already on fire over the shutdown, which began Wednesday after the Senate failed to clear a stopgap funding bill.
Trump’s posts accused top Democrats, including President Joe Biden, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of sabotaging the government, framing them as villains in a fever-dream montage that echoed the White House’s broader online tactic of mixing taunts and deepfakes to drive the narrative. One clip circulated by Trump’s allies even cast Budget Director Russell Vought as a grim reaper stalking Democratic portraits, a cartoonish flourish that still underscored real-world pain as agencies furloughed staff and services slowed.
The shutdown is primarily about Affordable Care Act subsidies, not a supposed Democratic plot to fund “free health care for illegal immigrants,” a claim Trumpworld has been pushing and that fact-checkers say is flatly false. Democrats want to extend the enhanced ACA premium tax credits that lapse December 31, warning that more than 20 million Americans could see monthly premiums spike if Congress doesn’t act. Independent analyses estimate average premiums could more than double to roughly $1,900 a month if the subsidies vanish. Public polling shows overwhelming support for extending the credits.
Trump now calling Democrats ‘the party of hate, evil, and Satan’ pic.twitter.com/XBtI8oDKr5
— Danny Kemp (@dannyctkemp) October 3, 2025
Republicans control the Senate 53–47 but need 60 votes to advance any funding bill, which has left both parties trading blame as the standoff drags on. Senate leaders acknowledged late Thursday that a breakthrough was unlikely before the weekend, while the administration leaned into shutdown brinkmanship, threatening firings and permanent cuts to what it derides as “Democrat agencies” and “favorite projects.”
Trump’s Satan post was part of a broader late-night “mini-posting” spree that also included the recycled boast that he presided over “record Black employment.” That claim has long been contested by labor economists, who note that the lowest Black unemployment rate on record occurred after the pandemic recovery under President Joe Biden, with trendlines declining for years before Trump took office. In short, Trump’s victory lap on Black jobs remains shaky at best.
Meanwhile, the facts on immigration and health care eligibility, central to the White House talking points, don’t match the rhetoric. Undocumented immigrants are broadly barred from ACA marketplace plans, premium subsidies, Medicare, and full-scope Medicaid, and experts say the Democratic proposal doesn’t change that. Nonpartisan groups have called claims of “free health care for illegal immigrants” during the shutdown baseless, even as some Republicans continue to repeat them.
In the political scrum, one thing is clear: the price of inaction is real. A Kaiser Family Foundation snapshot released Friday found nearly 78% of Americans favor extending the ACA subsidies, including majorities of independents and a sizable chunk of Republicans. In other words, there is mass appetite for a deal that keeps coverage affordable, even as the shutdown burns on.
