Republicans have a “nuclear option” in the form of upcoming debt ceiling negotiations, billionaire developer Donald Trump said Monday as he slammed the White House's poor leadership on the fiscal cliff issue.
“The whole thing, the whole charade going on in Washington is politically irresponsible, what’s going on is unbelievable,” Trump said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
“That a deal can’t be made with these people sitting around for years talking about, we’re not talking about over the last week, we’re talking about for years they’ve been talking about the subject, they still can’t make a deal, what it shows is no leadership in Washington, we have no leadership, and it’s totally irresponsible for this country.”
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Trump called the cliff a “curb” because a deal of some sort will ultimately be hammered out, he believes. What is crucial is to push for a “big deal” because Republicans have leverage, in the form of the upcoming debt ceiling debate.
“Look, the Republicans are sitting there with a nuclear weapon, so to speak,” Trump said. “They have the debt ceiling coming up. They can use that as part of negotiations, and they should.”
Trump also blasted lawmakers for leaving for Christmas vacation with crucial business unfinished.
“It sends a very bad signal, you see the president playing golf, lots of other people doing other nice things…but in the meantime, the country is in limbo,” he said. “You’re looking at what’s going on and you see the lack of cohesion in Washington, probably, maybe in history it’s never been anything like it.”
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