President Trump, whom Democrats say is the only Republican leader who can break the government funding stalemate, has stayed out of the fray on Capitol Hill, leaving lawmakers in both parties pessimistic about reaching a deal until he engages in serious talks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Friday that he will stick with his plan of forcing Senate Democrats to keep voting on a House-passed seven-week resolution to fund the government, but the measure has already failed four times and has little chance of picking up new support.

Thune is betting that it’s only a matter time before eight Democrats vote for the House bill, giving it the 60 it needs to advance to Trump’s desk, but that wager is looking more and more like a long shot.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says any deal to reopen the government lies with Trump, not Thune or Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

“The bottom line on that is we need the president to be involved. Johnson and a whole lot of his caucus don’t like the ACA, don’t want to do the extensions. A lot of Republican senators in the Senate do but they’re not enough. Thune is not enough,” Schumer said.

“You need Johnson and particularly you need Donald Trump to get it done,” he added. “We need real improvements in Americans’ health care.”

Johnson told CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that “the House did its job” and stuck to his plan to keep the chamber out of session to ramp up pressure on the Senate to act.

He has extended the House recess until Oct. 14 to underscore his message to Democratic senators that approving the House-passed funding bill is the only way to end the shutdown.

© The Hill