Democrats are deeply divided over how hard to press their leverage with President Trump and his Republican allies on getting concessions in a bill to fund the government that needs to pass by Sept. 30 to avoid a shutdown.

Senate Democrats held a tense lunch meeting Tuesday to discuss their plan for how to vote on the first spending bill to reach the floor — the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations bill — as well as their strategy for how to handle the end-of-September government funding deadline.

Soon after that session, which stretched to nearly 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) met with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) to piece together a strategy as progressives called for them to take a hard line with Republicans.

“It’s hard to negotiate a budget with Republicans right now because they have demonstrated that they will cut a deal and then turn around and change the deal solely to benefit themselves. That’s not a deal, that’s like cutting a deal to buy a car, and then long after the price has been paid, the Republicans want to come and repossess the tires. It doesn’t work that way,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said.

“My views on engaging in pretend negotiations with Republicans who are simply in a power grab and will do whatever Donald Trump tells them to do [is that it] doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Warren said.

Some disgruntled progressives are vowing they cannot repeat the mistake they made in March, when 10 Democratic........

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