Schumer backs down on fight against GOP’s government funding bill as Democrats face reckoning over Trump strategy

Veteran Democrats privately believed Chuck Schumer’s decision on the shutdown was inevitable. Others were ready for the top Senate Democrat to lead them into their first big battle against President Donald Trump — and instead have been left fuming.

Schumer’s declaration Thursday night that he would vote for Republicans’ stopgap spending bill, backing down in the party’s first big leverage point in President Donald Trump’s second term has confirmed a dire political reality for his caucus: Democrats had no good options left to avert a government shutdown with just hours to go until the deadline.