White House aides and allies view President Donald Trump’s tweets as less risky than winding news conferences, and also see a benefit in letting the news cycle play out. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Government Shutdown On shutdown, White House wants Trump’s tweets to do the talking Since Dec. 11, Trump has addressed Democratic leaders only via Twitter. For most White House aides and allies, that’s a positive development.

Negotiations to reopen the government are happening exactly where White House aides want them — on President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed.

As the federal government shutdown entered its eighth day on Saturday, the president once again had no public events on his schedule. Instead, he spent the day making private calls to congressional allies, holding closed-door huddles with White House aides — and tweeting. According to White House aides and outsiders close to the administration, it’s a tactic Trump will stick with in the coming days.


The strategy has raised questions even among those in Trump’s own party who wonder why the president has evaded the public spotlight at a critical juncture as he tries to win $5 billion in funding for his signature issue, a southern border wall.

It wasn’t long ago, in the lead-up to the November midterm elections, that Trump was pounding the pavement at near-daily rallies and conducting a barrage of interviews with major newspapers and television networks to push his agenda. This time around, though, the president has mostly remained cloistered in the White House. He hasn’t spoken to Democratic leaders since a jaw-dropping televised Oval Office meeting on Dec. 11 in which he sparred with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, shockingly declaring that he’d be “honored” to close the government over border security. White House officials haven’t even discussed a budget deal with Schumer or Pelosi since last weekend.

But for most White House aides and allies, Trump’s approach is a positive development. They view the president’s tweets as less risky than winding news conferences, during which Trump has been known to repeat false claims and tussle with journalists. They also see a benefit in letting the news cycle play out and simply letting the president’s Twitter feed amplify certain stories, such as the recent death of a California police officer who was allegedly shot by an undocumented immigrant.

“I wouldn’t take it as him not being engaged,” said a person close to the White House, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. “We all know he uses Twitter as his main microphone and right now, there are a lot of things percolating where it doesn’t necessarily require him to be out there.”

Trump used the Twitter microphone on Saturday to accuse the Democrats of being more interested in investigating his administration than negotiating a deal to reopen the government.

“I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security,” he wrote on Twitter , a day after conservative media lit up with images of Pelosi vacationing at a luxury Hawaiian resort. “From what I hear, they are spending so much time on Presidential Harassment that they have little time left for things like stopping crime and our military!”

Trump has employed that same turn of phrase in a string of recent tweets, lamenting online last Sunday that “Presidential Harassment has been with me from the beginning!” Earlier this month, he tweeted that his approval rating “would be at 75%” were it not for the “Presidential Harassment” of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of federal prosecutors and the “phony Russia Witch Hunt.” And in November, Trump claimed that the “prospect of Presidential Harassment by the Dems” was to blame for stock market fluctuations.

Hours later, the president returned to Twitter to again blame Democrats — this time for the recent deaths of a young migrant boy and girl, who died weeks apart from each other while in custody of U.S. immigration officials, and for blocking Senate Republicans from approving construction of a barrier along the border last year.

The flashpoint in talks to reopen the government, which closed at midnight Dec. 21, remains Trump’s request for $5 billion in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats have offered $1.3 billion for border security measures. Vice President Mike Pence countered that offer on Dec. 22, asking for roughly $2.5 billion during a meeting with Schumer. But White House officials have said no progress has been made since the Senate minority leader rejected the overture.

Even with the unlikely prospect that a spending deal will be reached before the incoming House Democratic majority is seated on Thursday, White House staffers have remained at work, filling up the parking lot each morning.

Officials have held meetings about the shutdown, including a recent briefing on the economic impact of closing down the border — a step Trump said he might take if he didn’t get his wall money — and are working to keep the executive branch running as smoothly as possible. During the January government shutdown, some senior aides were tasked with vetting visitors to the White House who had long-planned meetings or future roundtables with Trump — a task not typically included in their portfolio.

The limited staff and extra hours make for an unpleasant atmosphere inside the West Wing, according to one White House official who experienced two shutdowns during his tenure.

“At the end of the day, you can’t make up the work of 25 of your other co-workers who were told to go home,” the official told POLITICO, adding that “essential staff” versus “non-essential staff” designations only serve to exacerbate tensions between employees. “There’s a lot of hurt feelings when people are deemed non-essential.”

A handful of those essential employees, including White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and incoming acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, have spent a portion of their time since the Christmas holiday supplementing Trump’s tweets with additional comments on the status of negotiations and who’s to blame for the shutdown. Mulvaney, who held court with reporters outside the White House on Friday, said Trump is “absolutely” considering closing down the U.S.-Mexico border.

Additionally, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is expected to participate in the Sunday show circuit this weekend, with separate appearances on Fox News and CNN.

Trump has also tried to calm the volatile financial markets from the White House. The stock market has yo-yoed in recent weeks, rattled by the shutdown, questions about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s job security and ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

The president tweeted Saturday that he spoke over the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying the two men “had a long and very good” conversation.

“Deal is moving along very well,” Trump wrote online. “If made, it will be very comprehensive, covering all subjects, areas and points of dispute. Big progress being made!"

For his part, Xi said he and Trump “hope to push for a stable progress” of U.S.-China relations, according to the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Earlier this month, the two countries reached a deal at the G-20 summit in Argentina to continue negotiations, with Trump agreeing to delay a new round of tariffs for the time being and Xi vowing to purchase more goods from the U.S.