US barrels towards government shutdown as last-ditch vote fails

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States government would probably see its first shutdown in more than six years, with funding expiring at midnight and no breakthrough in sight on deadlocked negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.

“We’ll probably have a shutdown,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office just hours before the deadline for a deal. “Nothing is inevitable but I would say it’s probably likely.”

Trump’s assessment came after a last-gasp meeting at the White House on Monday yielded no progress, with top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer saying afterward that “large differences” remained between the sides.

Trump blamed Democrats over the stalled talks and threatened to punish the party and its voters during any stoppage by targeting progressive priorities and forcing mass public sector job cuts.

“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible that are bad for them … like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like,” he warned.

Democrats, in the minority in both chambers of Congress, have been seeking to flex rare leverage over the federal government, eight months into Trump’s barnstorming second presidency that has seen entire government agencies dismantled.