Thune, Trump Warn Democrats: Republicans Are United, And It’s Time To End The Shutdown

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans emerged from their Tuesday lunch at the White House with a message for their Democrat colleagues: they are unified, and they are on Donald Trump’s team.

“This is the fourth week of the Democrats’ shutdown, but we are all here today because your Republican team in the Senate is unified,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told President Trump as he took the podium following the president’s remarks.

“Senate Republicans, House Republicans, and the President of the United States are all in favor of opening the federal government,” the Senate Majority Leader added as he gaggled with reporters outside the White House following the lunch. “You have a bunch of the people here, a united team, that believes profoundly that we need to get our government open and if Democrats want to talk about subjects, things unrelated to getting the government, we’re happy to have those conversations.”

The Rose Garden luncheon brought together the nation’s top Republicans, including the president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Senators Chuck Grassley, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Jim Banks, Tim Scott, Mitch McConnell, Ashley Moody, and many others.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden on October 21, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump, who is very proud of his Rose Garden renovations, as well as his upcoming ballroom addition to the White House, acted as host for the event, touting the beauty of the outdoor space to his Republican friends, many of whom he knows very well. He also tore into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Democrats in the Senate, calling for them to immediately end their resistance to the “clean, bipartisan CR and reopen our government.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Schumer had slammed the Rose Garden lunch as a “pep rally,” posting on X of his Republican colleagues: “No time to fix the healthcare crisis they created, but plenty of time for a mini pep rally with Donald Trump!”

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“From the beginning, our message has been very simple,” President Donald Trump told the gathered Republicans. “We will not be extorted on this crazy plot of theirs. … Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats need to vote for the clean, bipartisan CR, and reopen our government … right now.”

“We are not doing that,” added the president, speaking of the Democrats holding up the government from opening. “They are the obstructionists. And the reason they are doing it is because we are doing so well. We’re doing so well all over the world.”

Notably absent from today’s lunch was Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, whom Trump singled out.

“Everybody showed up,” he said. “We’re just missing one person.”

Paul responded to the president’s remarks on social media, saying in an X post: “I actually wasn’t invited to the White House lunch today, but that’s ok. I had a previously scheduled Liberty Caucus Lunch with [Thomas Massie].”

I actually wasn’t invited to the White House lunch today, but that’s ok I had a previously scheduled Liberty Caucus Lunch with ⁦@MassieforKY⁩ pic.twitter.com/7IHoQiZ3OR

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 21, 2025