White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox News Thursday, dropping any pretense that the Trump administration’s “strategy” for securing Democratic votes to fund the government is anything more than mob-style extortion.

"The Democrats should know that they put the White House and the president in this position. And if they don't want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government. It's very simple,” she said. “Pass the clean continuing resolution, and all of this goes away.”

Leavitt also mentioned President Donald Trump’s meeting with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who was one of the architects of the wildly unpopular Project 2025.

The meeting, which Trump has presented as a discussion about which “Democrat A

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