President Donald Trump said Thursday that while he hadn’t heard Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ comments minimizing the effects of the government shutdown on federal employees who’ve missed paychecks, “I do understand that perhaps he should have said it differently.”

“Local people know who they are, when they go for groceries and everything else, and I think what Wilbur was probably trying to say, is that they will work along,” Trump said, referring to unpaid federal workers.

While some banks and other lenders have offered shutdown deals for affected federal employees, there’s little chance the voluntary efforts have kept pace with the record-breaking partial government shutdown, now in its 34th day.

“I know banks are working along,” Trump said. “If you have mortgages, the mortgagees — the folks collecting the interest and all of those things, they work along, and that’s what happens in times like this.”

“They know the people, they’ve been dealing with them for years, and they work along,” he said before trailing off. “The grocery store…”

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