WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct 22, 2025 – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the floor Wednesday evening, unleashing a blistering takedown of President Donald Trump’s “perverse priorities” as the government shutdown drags into its fourth week, leaving millions staring down a looming healthcare catastrophe. Flanked by Oregon Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley in a show of solidarity, Schumer accused the administration of abandoning Americans in their hour of need—opting instead for a six-day overseas schmooze-fest that leaves the shutdown’s fallout festering.
In a nearly two-minute clip that racked up over 30,000 views on X by Thursday morning, Schumer painted a dire picture of the crisis triggered by the lapse of Affordable Care Act subsidies, set to expire without congressional action. “A horrible crisis that is going to leave millions without any healthcare insurance at all,” he thundered from the mahogany dais, gesturing emphatically in his navy suit and orange paisley tie. “That’s gonna raise premiums for people from $500-$1k per month—not a year. That will close rural hospitals, that would kick people out [of] nursing homes where they’ll have nowhere to go.”
Schumer’s floor remarks, delivered just hours after the House recessed amid stalled funding talks, zeroed in on Trump’s impending foreign trip—rumored to include stops in the Gulf—as a slap in the face to suffering constituents. “Instead of negotiating a way out that addresses the crisis with Leader Jeffries and I, [he] is going away for six days,” Schumer fumed. “It’s outrageous for him to leave on [a] foreign trip while American people are suffering.” He urged the president to “at very least sit down [and] negotiate in a serious way” before jetting off, questioning: “Shouldn’t we be working to lower people’s premiums? To keep rural hospitals open? To prevent people from being kicked out of nursing homes? [To] ensure that research that saves lives continues?”
The speech, part of a broader Democratic filibuster against Republican funding proposals, ties directly to the shutdown’s roots: Senate Democrats have blocked 11 GOP-led continuing resolutions since October 1, demanding extensions for ACA tax credits that shield low-income families from premium hikes, alongside disaster relief for hurricane-ravaged states. Republicans counter that Democrats are holding the government hostage to unrelated spending sprees, with House Speaker Mike Johnson earlier branding the standoff a “Democrat shutdown” fueled by “Marxist” pressures. Trump’s team has floated a clean CR through November 21, but Schumer dismissed it as insufficient, insisting on bipartisan sweeteners to avert the “desperate need” voiced by constituents.
Merkley, who kicked off the session with his own jeremiad on Trump’s “authoritarianism,” drew Schumer’s explicit backing: “My colleague from New York, Minority Leader [Hakeem Jeffries], is absolutely right that priorities are absolutely perverse.” The Oregon senator had teed up the debate by decrying GOP intransigence on healthcare, framing it as an assault on democratic norms amid the administration’s parallel pushes on redistricting and immigration enforcement.
The X post, timestamped 8:53 p.m. ET, amplified the moment with a stark caption: “JUST NOW: I stood with @SenJeffMerkley in his fight on the Senate floor against Donald Trump’s authoritarianism. Donald Trump is about to leave on a foreign trip in the middle of his shutdown instead of fixing this healthcare crisis.” It ignited a partisan blaze in the replies, with over 999 responses by dawn. MAGA diehards piled on: @Bubblebathgirl sniped, “You shut down the government to try to get free healthcare for illegals. Want to fix healthcare for Americans? Deport all illegals and repeal Obamacare.” @EdgeCBLaw lambasted Schumer as the real “ransom note” author, noting rejected GOP offers for standalone ACA extensions and troop pay guarantees. Memes proliferated—one Photoshopped Schumer as a fiddler amid Capitol flames, another quipped, “Chuck’s shutdown symphony: Healthcare hostage, foreign trip encore.”
Democrats, meanwhile, rallied: Users like @LaReinaCreole flipped the script, arguing the impasse stems from GOP favoritism toward “illegals over American citizens.” Broader sentiment skewed 60-40 against the shutdown per overnight polls, with independents increasingly irked by flight delays (up 53%) and furloughed feds facing another missed payday.
As Trump preps for wheels-up—Air Force One slated for Doha per leaks—the clock ticks toward November 1 ACA enrollment chaos. Schumer wrapped defiantly: “Rather than taking a foreign trip… shouldn’t the president be spending time addressing the health care crisis rather than spending all this time eroding our democracy?” With Senate back in session Thursday for a retroactive pay vote, the perverse priorities Schumer decries may force a reckoning—or extend the pain. For the 2 million idled workers and 10 million at risk of coverage cliffs, the floor show feels all too real.
