With the government shutdown now into its fourth week, and Donald Trump apparently dead set on keeping it that way, a bipartisan group of senators are looking to take matters into their own hands. According to The Washington Post, members have planned to discuss a way to reopen the government temporarily while funding negotiations continue—though exactly what that entails is uncertain. An earlier attempt at a Senate-brokered deal, in which Lindsey Graham proposed that Trump agree to temporarily reopen the government, did not jibe with Trump’s instinct for hostage-taking. “I did reject it, yes. I’m not interested. I want to get it solved. I don’t want to just delay it,” Trump explained to reporters on Monday. Another Graham proposal—trading wall funding for temporary protections for DACA recipients and Temporary Protected Status holders—was shot down, prompting Graham to lament that he had “never been more depressed.”

It’s unclear what might be accomplished by this new, bipartisan brain trust, which is being led by Senators Joe Manchin and Cory Gardner. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already stated that he will not weigh in on any deal unless it’s negotiated between Trump, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer, though he apparently “is not discouraging” the group to “brainstorm” solutions, per an aide. “As long as their answer remains ‘no,’ there’s probably not a productive role for him to play,” Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff, told the Post.

Indeed, short of Congress gathering the will to override a presidential veto, any hope for a solution likely resides with Trump—who has suggested he might declare a national emergency to get his $5.7 billion paid for out of the Army Corps of Engineers budget. His Republican allies eventually talked him out of it, noting that such an expansive use of executive authority would surely open the door to similar moves by future presidents. (“If today the national emergency is border security, tomorrow the national emergency might be climate change,” warned Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a climate skeptic.) For now, however, such a declaration is off the table, leaving the president with few other avenues toward a compromise. Both sides have hardened in their positions, seeing little reason to budget, as some 800,000 federal workers continue to go without pay.

If there is a silver lining for Democrats, it is that Trump’s attempts to shift responsibility for the shutdown appear to be failing. Numerous polls taken last week found that roughly half of Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for the shutdown, while only about one-third blame the Democrats. Even Rasmussen, a polling firm notable for its G.O.P.-friendly bent, found that the president currently has a 43 percent approval rating, the lowest daily approval rating in almost a year. Considering Trump kicked off the shutdown by telling Schumer and Pelosi on live TV that he would take the blame, this is not altogether surprising. Still, Trump seems intent on maintaining his P.R. blitz. “When it comes to keeping the American people safe, I will never, ever back down,” he vowed on Monday at a farming convention in New Orleans.

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