Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that congressional Democrats lacked a “larger moral purpose” in their shutdown fight with President Donald Trump.

The federal government entered a partial shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Oct. 1 after the Senate failed to pass a continuing resolution, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster after the House of Representatives passed the short-term funding bill on Sept. 19. Gingrich told “The Faulkner Focus” host Harris Faulkner that Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York “made a mistake” by pursuing a “double negative strategy.”

“I think the key to a shutdown is to have a moral purpose large enough that the country rallies to you,” Gingrich told Faulkner. “That’s where I think the Democrats made a mistake. We have a project called America’s New Majority Project. We tested: People have two attitudes: One, don’t shut the government; Two, don’t raise spending. They’re very strongly against more spending. So what does Schumer do? He shuts down the government in order to raise spending. That’s a double negative. It is not easy to have a double negative strategy that hurts you on both fronts.”

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“President Trump proved again on his trip to the Middle East [that] he’s very tough, he’s very strategic, he’s very firm,” Gingrich continued, later adding that he doubted Trump “feels any pressure” to give in to Democratic demands.

Schumer came under fire from left-wing media figures and Democrats in Congress over his decision to help pass a GOP-backed spending bill to prevent a government shutdown in March. Democrats demanded over $1 trillion in funding for various priorities, including continuing enhanced payouts for Obamacare enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic and restoring funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP), which will shut down in January 2026 after its funding was cut in a rescissions package passed in July.

Gingrich hinted that Trump could very well shut down “the Democratic parts of the government,” hinting that the furloughing of workers not deemed “essential” could turn into something permanent.

“I always thought when they had a big snowstorm, they’d say only essential workers need to show up,” Gingrich said. “It’s kind of dangerous to decide you’re non-essential. If you aren’t essential, why do you have him? Gallup used to ask people how much waste is in the federal government. The average answer was 50%.”

“So, to make the case you can’t cut government, you can’t reform it, you can’t cut off boondoggle things like the California fast-track rail, which is a total joke, total waste of money, the New York City expansion of the metro which is 10 times as expensive as it would be in London or Paris because of union work rules,” Gingrich continued. “I think the average American says fine, do what you have to do, get the budget under control, start moving towards balance, and the Democrats are gonna lose that fight.”

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